


Pokemon Tales

by Dzentelmen



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Adventure, Caves, F/M, Fantasy, Friendship, M/M, Mystery, Science Fiction, Sea Monsters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-02 17:04:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 95,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16309217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dzentelmen/pseuds/Dzentelmen
Summary: This is a very basic Pokemon fanfiction which incorporates ideas from games, anime, manga and various things I came up with to create a, hopefully, interesting take on the journeys of protagonists in all the generations. I have planned out most of Kanto and Johto but as I have learned when writing this, there is always room for change. The first chapter isn't too great and you'll probably consider dropping it but if you have time, read until the end of chapter 4. If you don't find anything you like by then, that means it's probably not for you. I decided not to use any warnings or give this story a rating since I don't know how it's going to evolve but so far (15 chatpers in) it's more teen than adult oriented.





	1. Chapter 1: Ready.

An important thing before you start reading. I post this work on Fan Fiction but I do it under a different name. If you read it there and see it here and suspect plagiarism, check my profile over there where I made a note saying that I will post this here.

Another important thing is that I will probably try to change some of these early notes I placed before or after the chapter because I think they made me sound a little condescending, which I think may be one of the reasons for why I barely got any comments even though it seems like I have people constantly reading or catching up on the story. If I ever sound like an asshole, please bear with me.

I also sometimes have problem with words. Even though I'm decent at using english and put each chapter through Word, there may be instances where I accidentally put an "s" and make something plural while it wasn't supposed to be, or, for example, write inn instead of in. If you catch errors like these, as long as your comment isn't only pointing out errors, you can write about it and I will probably edit them.

* * *

 

Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 1: Ready.

This is a story. That is true. This certainly can be called a story. It has a beginning, a middle and... Scratch that. It does not have an end. It does not really have a middle yet. There are things that will happen after the beginning, but how can one say if something has a middle if it does not have an end? That's pretty confusing to me. But then again, I'm not a naturally bright person. But, you know what is bright? The sun. And it was bright all the same on that day that a certain teenage boy decided to embark on a journey that would define his whole life.

. . .

His name was Red, which gives you an insight into how imaginative were his parents. That kinda name can really influence a kid. Red's favorite color was red. His jacket was red, his hat too. Not his pants though. That's just bad fashion sense.

Red lived in the Kanto region. If somebody is not sure where that is, the only clue is this that it's right next to Johto region. But at this time in the story it's not really important. Red himself was too preoccupied with other things to even know about the existence of other regions. He rarely even had the chance to live his hometown, Viridian City.

His parents were a pretty average couple. His dad had a small grocery shop and his mother worked at a local office. They were pretty carefree and let Red decide what he wanted to do with his time. Sometimes, he attended the local school, but at other times he would wander around doing all kinds of stuff that relaxed him; fishing, playing football with friends, exploring the forest.

One day, when he was about 13 years old, he got hurt when he was attacked by a wild Mankey. His mother was pretty worried and wanted to start setting some rules as to keep him safe, but his father was more lenient and instead chose to provide Red with a partner that would help him during any future dangers. This partner was an Eevee. Red and the Pokemon quickly formed a strong bond. This kinda alienated Red from other teenagers, because most of them did not have Pokemon. It was fairly normal that a person who got their first Pokemon would set out on a journey to become a Pokemon trainer. Red wasn't too interested in it. He had loving parents, a great friend and all the time in the world to do whatever he wanted, so there really was no reason for him to begin a journey that would limit him to going from city to city and gathering badges.

One day, when Red was at his friends birthday, all the other kids were preoccupied with the presents that the boy received. Red knew that the only reason he was invited was because the mother of the other boy pressured him into it, since she felt bad for Red. While others were playing outside, he went into the house to get himself a snack, and he noticed the boy's dad watching television. Luck would have it, that it was the semi-finale of the Kanto Pokemon League. Agatha, a famous trainer who was part of the Elite Four was using her Gengar in a fight against another trainer's Nidorino. Gengar was trying to hit the opponent with a Shadow Claw but Nidorino managed to avoid the attack and used Peck. At that moment, the father noticed Red and asked him if he needed something. Red remembered why he went into the house but was kinda embarrassed so he left without saying anything. He didn't go for the snacks. He left the party entirely.

On his way home, during dinner and when laying in bed, he was still thinking about the fight he saw. For the next couple of days, Red mostly stayed indoors, watching various videos on Pokemon on the internet and reading books about tactics used in Pokemon fights. Soon, he and Eevee would spend a lot less time playing around and a lot more, venturing out into Viridian Forest to fight the wild Pokemon there. Finally, Red decided to talk to his parents about the possibility of being a Pokemon trainer.

"You're going to be a Pokemon trainer?" his dad responded in surprise "Well, if that's what you want to do, you should go for it."

"What are you talking about?" the mother interrupted angrily "I know that we have decided to allow him a lot of freedom but I thought that was because you wanted him to have a satisfying childhood, so he would have no problem with taking over your business down the line."

"I mean... that kinda was my plan... but I don't really want to limit him. My father worked in a coal mine and wanted me to do the same, but I knew I wouldn't be suitable for that kind of job so I decided to do what I wanted to do and hoped it would work out. That's just how people in our family do it."

"I guess... but... Red, are you really sure this is what you want to do?"

The boy held up his chin with a hand and made a focused face while humming all the while to finally respond "Yes. At least for now. I don't want to set a specific goal for myself but if I at any point realize that this Pokemon trainer thing is not working out, I will return home. How about that?"

The mother, still visibly concerned, looked at her husband, then back at her son and nodded.

"If you are going to be a Pokemon trainer" said the father "there is something that I could arrange that would help you."

"What is it?"

"I don't want to make any promises so give some time, and when I'm sure whether this thing will work out or not, that's when you'll be free to go on your journey. Till then, just focus on preparing. We will give you some starting money, but it'll be good if you can learn to earn some yourself before going on a journey. Is that okay with you?"

"I guess... But what do you want me to do?"

"I didn't really have anything in mind... but... you are pretty good at fishing. You could try selling the fish you catch."

"Okay. I'll do that."

. . .

Some time passed. It's been already 2 years since Red got his Eevee but only a couple months since he started being interested in becoming a Pokemon trainer. Over that time, his previous friends showed more interest, noticing him constantly training with his Pokemon and earning money. They felt too embarrassed to talk to him about what he was doing so they learned from his parents about him becoming a Pokemon trainer. They all started to feel bad about how they treated him and also kinda jealous. Many of them were inspired by Red deciding to take fate into his hands and working towards something. A lot of them still did not know what they wanted to do with their lives and weren't too keen to find any goals for the future, so seeing how Red was the only one doing something at that time, they started to feel bad about themselves.

However, soon a couple of them started to focus more on their studies, realizing that they need them to get the future jobs they wanted. Others began helping at local businesses to get a feel of what it means to be a working adult. Even though Red was the first one to take initiative, it actually seemed like his future was the one which was most unstable. Nevertheless, they were grateful to Red for the unwitting inspiration that he provided them. As a show of gratitude, when the day on which he would start his journey arrived, they threw him a big farewell party. There were many hugs, tears and apologies. Finally, it was time for Red to learn what his father hoped to arrange for him and if the whole thing worked out.

"So, you're gonna be on your way soon" said his dad, with a voice filled with pride but also a hint of sadness.

His mother was standing behind the father, holding a tissue she used already several times to wipe her tears.

"Yes. Me and Eevee have been doing a lot of training... I'm really excited for this" Red responded.

The father had to do a double take, because for a second there, Red seemed much taller than he really was, and his eyes looked almost ablaze with raging fire.

"Have you heard about Professor Oak?"

"Of course. He came up many times during my studies. I didn't really get much of the sciency stuff but he's supposed to be some kind of genius from Pallet Town."

"Yes. That's him. I heard from a friend that Professor Oak was creating something like a scholarship. He provides beginning Pokemon trainers with Pokemon and in exchange they have to regularly send him data from their Pokedexes."

"Poke-wha?"

"Yeah... I also don't get the "sciency" stuff. Anyway, I was worried that Professor wouldn't want to have you work for him because you've already got yourself a Pokemon but it turned out that he still had one Pokemon left to give out. Normally he wouldn't give it to somebody who already has a Pokemon but this one is a special case."

"How come?"

"I heard this one is a real pain in the a..."

"Honey!" his wife interrupted him.

"Sorry... Anyway, he will give you the Pokemon and if you can manage to tame him, you can take him on your journey."

"That's... that's awesome! You hear that, Eevee?!" Red yelled excited as he picked up his Pokemon and spun around a couple times.

"But remember Red, be care..." his mother begun, but she was too late.

Red was so ecstatic that he already ran off without even saying goodbye to his parents. After about 10 meters he realized that and turned around to yell "Don't worry! I'm gonna become a great trainer!"

"He seems a lot more sure of what he's doing than before" the mother commented.

"I said it many times already. When someone in our family decides on something, they won't change their mind, they won't stop until their achieve their goals... Even if these goals are kinda hard to define."

. . .

Red stepped onto a great boulder, inhaled powerfully and declared "The southern wind is blowing. 'Tis the scent of adventure."

A moment later, a cloud of dandelion seeds, caused by a nearby Spearow, flew into his face, causing him to sneeze and fall of the boulder. Eevee, who was previously playing with one dandelion himself, ran to his trainer with a worried expression on his face. Red quickly got up and proceeded to massage a bump that formed on the back of his head.

"Owww. Darn it. Whoever is responsible for that will answer dearly to... oo... oo... Aaah! It still hurts!"

Red run around the boulder with Eevee following closely behind. When he noticed the Spearow playing in the grass, he pointed angrily at him "You!"

The bird, previously oblivious to the teenagers presence, and clearly not intending to do anybody any harm, looked at both of them in confusion.

"Eevee, give him a what for!"

This time, the dog Pokemon also looked at his trainer with a face that clearly showed that he had no idea what "a what for" is.

"What? You know what to do. You give him... like "a what" and then... like "fo..." after a while Red realized that he was not getting through to his Pokemon "Just... Just use Tackle."

When he finally received a command he could understand, Eevee quickly run through the field of flowers and slammed into the bird Pokemon with such a force that he flew a couple meters, not using his wings, mind you, and hit a tree standing where the flowers ended. Red and Eevee waited a couple seconds to see if the opponent would get up.

Finally, the Spearow got on his feet and gave Eevee an angry look. Right after that, he mustered his strength, clearly showing that the attack affected him greatly, and took to the sky. He gave out a couple of long screechy cries. After that, there came more cries. Reverberating like an echo, they deafened Red and Eevee.

Soon, they realized that the sounds came from a whole flock of Spearows who made that tree and a couple other ones their homes. About 50 angry birds were getting ready to attack, and Red realized that one stupid move could be the thing that causes his journey to end prematurely.


	2. Chapter 2: Firewall.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red finds himself in deep trouble at the very beginning of his journey. How will he deal with this situation?

Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 2: Firewall.

Seeing the advancing flock of bird Pokemon, Red quickly evaluated the situation as to make the best possible choice of action. His Eevee tried to put up a brave front but his legs were shaking from , he realized that there was no ground beneath his trembling feet.

As it turned out, Red picked the dog up and decided to make a run for it. For a while, Eevee was disoriented, but he finally got his wits about him and looked backwards, in the direction of the angry birds. Seeing as they were getting closer with each passing second, the Pokemon felt completely helpless, but nevertheless, barked at them angrily. With Red holding him tightly, it was really the only thing he could do.

Red was trying to multitask during the whole situation. He decided to run through the woods, instead of the road or the flower fields as he hoped it would make it harder for the birds to follow them. His suspicions turned out to be correct. Spearows moved like a phalanx, in a perfect formation, which caused some of them to hit the trees whenever the whole flock tried to fly through tighter gaps. Red would not stop to count them, but by his approximation, about 30 of them still remained in hot pursuit.

As they were running through the forest, Eevee became worried again as he noticed Red growing more tired as their escape continued. Suddenly, they stopped moving. Eevee turned his head and noticed that not only have they left the forest completely, they also reached a precipice.

Although Red tried to quickly judge whether they would survive the jump to the river running below them, the bird Pokemon already managed to catch up with them. The one leading them stopped and he looked at them with a satisfying expression. He gave out a shriek which seemingly was a command to three of his companions to begin an attack.

Eevee struggled to get out of Red's hold, finally regaining his will to fight. He used Sand Attack to blind the attackers, after which he put them out of commission with a Quick Attack. Couple of Spearow's were visibly unnerved after witnessing Eevee's show of strength but their leader brought them back to order with a few quick cries. Finally, Red decided that they couldn't stand there and deflect the attacks forever. He looked at Eevee and yelled "Let's go, buddy!"

The dog ran up to him. When the Spearows realized what these two were doing, it was already too late. They plunged into the river and were quickly pulled by the current. As soon as the opportunity arose, Red grabbed Eevee with one hand, and a branch from a tree standing next to the river, with his other hand. He managed to get his Pokemon and, right after that, himself on dry land.

"I think... I think we lost them" he said while panting heavily.

He was soon proved wrong by another angry shriek. He slowly managed to get up and look in the sky. A group of 10 most persistent Spearow's were still following them and now tried to cut off their escape route by flying lower and encircling them.

"Okay... Now we can make our stand."

Before Red could give Eevee a command, two of the Spearow's already approached him and started pecking furiously. Another one took the opportunity and attacked from the back. Red tried to shoo them away but instead he drew another Spearow's attention to himself. He struggled to protect himself as the birds kept on using Fury Attack.

"Vine Whip!" somebody yelled from an unknown direction.

Instantly, the Spearows attacking Red were knocked away by what seemed to be a long, green rope. Before he could tell what was happening, his Eevee was also released from under the Spearow's beaks in the same way.

Everybody started to look around in order to discover where that attack came from. Not far from them stood a brown-haired boy in violet pants and a black shirt with a high collar. He had a pleased look on his face. Beside him, like an obedient lapdog, waited a Bulbasaur whose vines were quickly retracting back into his body. The boy slowly advanced towards Red and Eevee, as the bird Pokemon kept a safe distance, unsure of what he was planning.

"What the hell were you doing, getting into a fight with so many Spearow's at once?" he asked Red.

"Wha-? I mean... I didn't do it on purpose. It just kind of happened."

The boy looked at him for a while with a face that clearly showed that he was waiting for something till he finally said "How about a "thank you?" Or something? Anything."

"Oh, I'm sorry... I..."

"Guess that'll do for now."

Even though he was his savior, something about his attitude ticked Red off.

"Anyway..." the boy looked at flock of Spearow which managed to reform itself "...although I'm good, I don't think our power is gonna be enough here, especially with birds taking less damage from Grass attacks. Can you guys use Helping Hand?"

Red looked at him with a befuddled expression for a short while, finally saying "You mean that "you could use a helping hand"?"

"What?"

"What?"

"No! Are you dumb or something? The move! I mean the move "Helping Hand"! What kind of incompetent nincompoop are you?!"

"Hey! That's not very nice!" Red stopped "Even if I have no idea what nincompoop means."

"Just..." the boy began, but he was interrupted by an attempted attack from one of the Spearows, which flew right in front of his face "Just tell your Eevee to use Helping Hand!"

"Okay, okay. I'm on it. Eevee!"

The dog looked up at him with readiness painted on his face.

"Use Helping Hand!"

Even though they never heard of this move and did not practice it, what with Red being the only trainer among his friends and the move being useful only in double battles, Eevee managed to successfully execute it. He gathered up energy which made his body glow, then he put his paw on Bulbasaur which transferred the glow over to his body. Powered up in this way, Bulbasaur was ready to receive his command.

"Vine Whip isn't gonna be enough. Time to test that move we've been working on. Leaf Storm!"

Bulbasaur roared at the opponents as the bulb on his back started shooting out a seemingly unending barrage of razor-sharp leaves which formed into a whirlwind, at least 4 meters tall. Then, that miniature tornado seemingly gained a mind of its own as it flew in the direction of the birds. When the first ones started getting hit by the attack, the ones in the back realized the danger of the situation and tried to run away. Their efforts proved to be useless as every one of them got sucked into the whirlwind and battered inside it.

After a while, the wind stopped and the group of birds fell unconscious on the ground.

"Wow. Your plan worked out perfectly." Red commended the other trainer.

To his surprise, the boy reached into his bag and left a couple of Oran Berries near the passed out Spearows.

"I don't want to catch them so it would be unfair if we just left them here injured. They could become an easy prey for other Pokemon. So let's hope that they wake up soon enough and regain their strength with these berries."

With each second, Red's opinion of this mysterious trainer changed. At this point, he still wasn't sure what to make of his actions.

"Anyway, we should move from here."

Red followed the boy to the main road, with their Pokemon walking dutifully beside them.

"You seem really knowledgeable about this area." Red blurted out.

"Oh. It's because I live here. Not "here" here, but in Pallet Town... Which I guess also isn't true anymore as today is the first day of my journey."

"Oh? You're also on a journey? I started out myself a couple days ago... By the way, I'm Red."

"Like the color? Huh. My name's Green."

"That's... That's a weird coincidence."

"I mean... Is it? I guess... Anyway, I really should be on my way. By the way, Pallet Town is in that direction" he said as he pointed to the south.

"Thanks. Since we are both travelling trainers, maybe we'll meet on our journeys again."

"Sure. That's a possibility... Wait... Why would you be going to Pallet Town if you're a trainer?"

"Oh. There's supposed to be this big-brained guy, called Professor Oak who lives there and my dad arranged for me to get a Pokemon from him."

"I see. Yeah. My Bulbasaur is also from that "big-brained guy"... Good luck."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Don't worry." Green replied, already walking away towards Viridian City.

"You know, Eevee? Him saying that in such a suspicious way only makes me more worried".

. . .

After arriving in Pallet Town, Red quickly managed to find Professor Oak's laboratory. It stood out as it was built on a hill on the edge of the town, yet still avoided the trope of looking like a house from a horror movie. The boy climbed several steps, after which he stopped to catch a breath, since he was still tired out from his previous escapade. He rung the doorbell and after a while, a middle-aged man in a lab coat opened the door and greeted him with a big smile.

"You must be Red." he said "Unless you're some kind of peddler. In that case, I don't need any brushes."

"What? No, no. It's me. I'm Red."

"I'm just joking around. Come inside."

The professor closed the doors behind them as Red was preparing to take of his shoes.

"Oh. You don't need to. This place is somewhat dirty since I have various Pokemon living here."

Red quickly learned what the professor meant when a group of Rattata ran close to his feet and a Pidgey landed on his shoulder and began to sing happily.

"They're quite a handful, but not as much as the one you came here for."

Oak led the teenager to a shelf on which stood some kind of device which seemed to have three places in which a pokeball could be placed, but with only one of them occupied.

"Although I have a lot of Pokemon, these three were actually provided by the Pokemon League. They trusted my judgement to find suitable trainers for them. One of them, I gave to my grandson since they already bonded while living here together. The second one I gave to a girl who came here from as far as Sevii Islands. Me and my grandson tried to find somebody for this last guy, but so far all the trainers have failed to tame him. I was about to release him in the wild, when your father contacted me."

"Wait... Is your grandson called Green?"

"Oh, did you happen to meet him?"

"Yeah. He helped me out when I was in a tough spot."

"Hmm. That's nice to here. So, without further ado, here's your new Pokemon" Oak handed the pokeball to Red.

"That's it?"

"Pretty much. As I said, this is the last chance for this guy. Try to bond with him, but if it doesn't work out, just release him in the wild. I just want him to find some peace."

Red swallowed nervously "You can count on me, sir."

. . .

Red was walking on the road to Viridian City, holding up the pokeball with the mystery Pokemon as if he was intensely analyzing it, even though it was identical to then one in which Eevee was when he received him.

He found a small spot near the road, with two bunches and a small fountain with drinkable water, one of many such places scattered throughout the region as to provide a place for a short rest for travelling trainers. He instructed Eevee to stay back for a while, because he didn't want to scare away the Pokemon that was about to appear before them. He threw the pokeball, and a small orange lizard emerged from the ray of light.

He looked kind of disoriented so Red took the chance to use the Pokedex he got from Professor Oak to learn this Pokemon's name, as the Pokedex already had preexisting data an all the Pokemon currently and previously owned by Oak. Red learned the Pokemon's name and decided to call out to him "Hey, Charmander. How are you doing?"

The lizard responded by giving him a dirty look and turning away. He started walking towards the forest, so Red followed behind and tried to put his hand on the Pokemon's head to stop him, but when Charmander noticed him approaching, he jumped up and spun around to hit Red with his tail. The boy barely managed to dodge. He noticed that the front of his cap caught on fire so he quickly put it out in panic.

Charmander ignored Red and continued to walk away, as if dealing with the trainer wasn't worth his time. Red tried to come up with some way to convince the Pokemon to stay. During this brainstorming session, he glanced in the direction of Eevee who waited patiently as ordered. At that moment, a light bulb lit up in Red's head.

"Hey, you weakling!" he yelled.

Charmander heard him but continued to advance towards the forest.

"So that's it?! You're running away?! See that, Eevee?! It seems like that guy is just a coward!"

Charmander was bright enough to know that he was being insulted, although not enough to know that this was a subterfuge on Red's part. He turned around waiting to see what Red was planning to do after offending him.

"Eevee, you're up."

The dog ran in front of his trainer. Charmander realized that Eevee was to be his opponent, so he took the initiative by charging at him and furiously unleashing his Scratch. Eevee proved to be too fast, as he playfully jumped over Charmander and kicked him in the back of the head. Charmander took two steps to regain his balance, after which he turned around to attack again.

"Sand Attack!"

Before the lizard could do anything, his opponent kicked up the ground which blinded him for a short while, giving Eevee enough time to run to the side and execute his own attack after Red yelled "Tackle!"

Charmander became even more agitated. After quickly cleaning his eyes, the flame on his tail grew more intense as he got on all four and let out multiple balls of flame from his mouth.

"Quick Attack!"

Eevee sped through the avalanche of fiery bullets to deliver a headbutt to Charmander's belly. The pain caused the lizard to close his jaw and stop him from further attacks. Eevee jumped around happily, waiting for his opponent to counterattack. When Charmander finally got through his pain, he started slowly moving backwards, as to not alarm his foe. Eevee tilted his head with a confused look. When he was finally far enough in the grass, he used Ember again, but this time to create a protective wall of fire around himself.

"Oh no, you won't get rid of us this way. Eevee!"

The Pokemon looked at his trainer, noticed him pointing up and to the left, and when he realized what he meant, the dog used Quick Attack to get up the tree closest to Charmander. The lizard didn't have any time to react, as Eevee came down on him from above. They both rolled through the flames, but Charmander finally managed to push Eevee off himself. The dog was hurt by the fire but at least, the opponent was in the open again.

"I came to the conclusion that you didn't accept previous trainers because they were just trying to befriend you, not realizing what a prideful fighter you are, but now you run away? Maybe I was wrong after all." this time Red wasn't trying to anger, instead speaking of what he really felt.

It seemed that Red's guess was a bullseye, as Charmander took up a more aggressive stance and looked him in the eye.

"Now, that's more like it! Eevee, use Tail Whip!"

Eevee wagged his tail, which gave Charmander the chance to get a Scratch in.

"Once more! You have to endure!"

The same thing repeated. Charmander gave out a happy shout as he felt victory growing closer. Red proceeded to rain on his parade as he told his Pokemon "Alright. Time to finish it! Quick Attack Version B!"

Eevee used Quick Attack, but instead of running at the foe, he began circling around him, constantly gaining on speed.

"Mirror Room!"

Eevee moved so fast that to Charmander it seemed like he was encircled by a group of enemies. He began shooting more flaming balls at the enemy, but he only managed to hit the afterimages. Time after time, Eevee would jump out of the circle to hit the opponent, with the other versions of him still remaining him.

Charmander was getting battered relentlessly, and the circle created by the Eevee's was getting smaller, finally thrusting the lizard into air. Eevee stopped and jumped after Charmander to deliver a final blow. They both landed on the ground, but while Eevee was on his four feet, Charmander couldn't get off the ground. Red walked up to him and placed the pokeball which was his home in an arms reach of the lizard.

"You can't fight anymore. Not today. I can either heal you, and let you be free or you can join us and we will grow stronger together, making your abilities live up to that darn pride of yours. Well... How about it?"

Charmander sighed tiredly as he pressed the button and let the light suck him back into his pokeball. Red picked it up, and look at it for a while to make sure that they really managed to reach an agreement, after which he looked at Eevee and showed him a big smile. Eevee followed suit.

* * *

When writing the first chapter I mostly listened to soundtracks from Pokemon movies, but this time I listened to The Pillows since I saw an interview with them talking about their work on FLCL. I realized that I never listened to any of their music, besides the one used in anime so I decided to catch up. I went through 4-5 albums while writing this and they made everything seem go faster but at the same time kind off more pleasant. This chapter is definitely more humorous, so maybe some of that is thanks to their music. If you've never listend, give it a try. Or don't. Also, don't worry if its not your cup of tea. This can apply to both their music, as well as to my writing.


	3. Chapter 3: Prepare for Trouble.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red returns to Viridian City. Since he has nothing better to do, he decides to challenge the local Pokemon Gym.

Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 3: Prepare for Trouble.

"How did that song go again? "I'm on a road to Viridian City. I'll meet my friends along the way..." I can't really remember what comes after that. How about you Eevee? You must have heard it a couple times" Red turned to his companion, walking beside him.

"Vee. Veevee. Eeeevee."

"No, that's not it. Oh, well. It doesn't matter anymore cause it seems like we're not on the road anymore." Red declared as he noticed the sign declaring that Viridian City was only 500 meters away.

. . .

His first stop in the city was the Pokemon Center. Although he was carrying various healing items with him, there was no reason as to why he would avoid the advantages provided by free healthcare.

Soon after he and his Pokemon were rested, he decided to pay a visit to his parents. He used the key to open the front door but as he went inside, he came to realize that it's still pretty early in the day so both of his parents were still at work. He thought about going to his dad's grocery shop since it wasn't far away but he changed his mind, deciding that he's gonna spend the night, so they are gonna meet later anyway.

"Well, since I want you to meet them later, you should probably get accustomed to the place" he said to Charmander as he was releasing him from the pokeball.

Since Eevee was always outside of his ball, as soon as they got to the house he laid down on his favorite spot on the couch, but when Charmander was released, he was eager to play, so he grabbed the dog by his leg and dragged him down. Red took out one of Eevee's chew toys and the Pokemon began a playful romp.

Red went to the kitchen, opened the fridge and looked around for a second before he grabbed a carton of milk and poured himself a glass. He sat on a chair and watched the playing Pokemon for a while. After finishing the glass of milk, he got kinda bored and went to the salon to try to watch some television, but that didn't prove helpful. He turned around while laying on the couch which made him fall to the floor. The Pokemon stopped playing for a short while in concern, but after he started to get up, they continued their fun. As a last resort, Red turned on his father's computer and went on the internet.

"Maybe I should try meeting with my friends?" he thought as he was skimming through a site with funny videos, but he quickly decided against it.

For some reason, he thought that it would look dumb if he met them again so soon after starting his journey. Thinking about that, he remembered an important part of being a Pokemon trainer which he still hasn't experienced. He didn't yet have a Gym battle.

"I wonder where the closest Gym is."

He used a search engine to quickly reach his answer.

"Oh? We have one of them in the city? I guess I never cared to look for it before I was a trainer, and after that, I focused mainly on training with Eevee. Anyway, I should go check it out."

He torn out a page from his father's notebook and wrote down the address for the Pokemon Gym, after which he whistled to his Pokemon to get their attention.

"Hey, guys. Looks like there's a Gym in this city, so we're gonna go to check it out. Are you ready?"

Eevee barked happily in response, but Charmander had a puzzled look on his face.

"Hmm... I guess you never heard of Gyms... It's like... we get to fight strong trainers and their Pokemon and if we win we'll get a prize."

After that explanation, Charmander also responded happily. Red returned him to his pokeball.

. . .

Looking around, then back to the piece of paper, then around again, Red was searching for the Gym. The place certainly seemed harder to find than he would have expected. He even asked some people for the way, but none were too sure where the Gym was, even if they knew it existed.

Finally, Red decided to take a short rest on a bench in a back alley he was walking through. He looked at the address again, certain that that either the Gym didn't exist anymore or that someone didn't want it to be found. When he put the paper down, he saw in front of himself a suspicious building with small windows, automatic doors and a yellow roof. As Red came closer to the building, he noticed traces of what seemed to be the words "Viridian City Pokemon Gym" next to the door. It seemed as if they were erased by the rain and no one bothered to provide a new paint job. The whole building looked kinda dirty and weed was sprouting from the ground around it.

"What's going on here?" Red pondered, while examining the building.

The automatic doors didn't seem to work, which added to the feeling that the building was abandoned.

"Hey! What are you doing here?!" somebody yelled from the right.

Red looked in that direction to notice a thin man in black clothes, with a red "R" on his shirt, walking from behind the building. He had a cigarette in his mouth, but as it was almost burned out, he threw it on the ground and stomped on it. When he got closer to Red, he sized the boy up, as if to examine if he was a threat.

"Get the hell out of here." he spoke again after a few seconds.

Red, being very confused, looked around almost like he was hoping that something would clear up the situation but there was nothing there.

"What is going on here?" he asked the man.

In turn, the adult also became visibly dumbfounded, probably because he expected his word to instantly get rid of the teenager.

"What do you mean "What is going on here"? Just scram, you moron."

"I mean... I would gladly do that, but the thing is, I have some business at this Gym." he explained while pointing with his thumb to the right.

"This Gym?"

Red began to feel like he was on a prank show with a hidden camera somewhere, but decided to continue talking in a calm and collected way "Yes. This exact Gym. There aren't any other Gym's around as far as I'm aware."

A vein popped up to the surface of the man's forehead, showing his growing irritation.

"Can't you see the place is closed? Whatever your business here was, you can't do anything with the place closed. So just get the hell out of here before I kick your ass and never show up here again. Capeesh?"

"No!"

"What the hell?!"

"I'm a Pokemon trainer. Part of that is collecting badges. I can't give up on doing that before I even got my first one."

"That's not my problem! The place is closed and I was told to scare away any losers trying to get inside!"

"Huh? Who told you to do that? Also... while we're talking about that, what's with the ridiculous outfit?"

"Ridiculous?! I see that somebody hasn't been watching the news as of late. I'm a member of Team Rocket! We're the biggest gang in Kanto and soon, on Earth."

Red was completely lost about what to think about everything, but he decided to take things easy and start by returning home and learning more about whatever happened to this Gym and if Team Rocket was actually a thing. He started walking away but a yell from the man stopped him.

"I don't like that attitude of yours. I don't wanna have you blabbing about what you saw here to other people so I'm gonna have to kick some sense into you with the help of my little friend. Go, Ekans!"

He threw a pokeball, from which emerged a purple snake.

"Was... Was that like a penis joke?"

"What?! No! Gah! I'm not wasting anymore time talking to you! Ekans, use Poison Sting!"

The snake opened its mouth and a rain of purple needles flew in Red's direction, with the boy managing to dodge them in the last second.

"That's how you want to play?"

Red's Eevee, who was standing back this whole time, not sure about what the humans were talking about, became angry after seeing his trainer attacked and was ready to fight back, but Red waved his hand to stop him.

"Not this time, buddy. I promised Charmander a Gym battle and since we can't have that, this will have to do. Go, Charmander!"

The lizard jumped out of his pokeball, full of energy. Red didn't have time to give him an order, because as soon as he saw Ekans, he was running at him full speed to deliver a Scratch. The snake Pokemon used his body like a spring to jump out of the way, not realizing that this way he exposed himself to something worse.

"Use Ember!"

Balls of flame flew towards the snake, who didn't have any way to avoid them. While he landed on the ground, he was already in severe pain, but still listened while his owner gave him the next order.

"Wrap!"

Ekans ensnared Charmander with his body and began to choke him.

"Oh no, you don't! Charmander, bite him to escape!"

The lizard put his sharp teeth into the snake's tail, freeing himself from his grasp. Ekans tried to run away, but Charmander kept his fangs sunk in his opponent's tail.

"Let's take a page out of Green's book. Spin around!"

Charmander began to turn quickly, making both himself and his foe dizzy, but when he finally let go of Ekans, not able to keep him because of centrifugal force, the snake was thrown into the side of the building. He wasn't even able to get up before Red gave Charmander another command, and the lizard sent the final Ember barrage, causing the snake to faint.

"What?!" the Team Rocket member yelled in surprise.

He proceeded to recall his Pokemon and gave Red an angry look. The teenager just smiled in response, having confidence in himself and Charmander after attaining this quick victory.

"You want to go another round?" he asked with a smug face.

The adult looked like he was about to say something, but was clearly too embarrassed by his lose. Red realized that the man didn't have other Pokemon, and that's why he wasn't keen on speaking out, on the account that Red could have chosen to repay him for that Poison Sting earlier. So instead, the Team Rocket member just ran away using one of the alleyways. Red slowly walked towards that direction with his hands holding up his head from the back. He was wondering if the man would return but seeing how quick he escaped, the boy dismissed that possibility.

"Great job, Charmander" he said to the Pokemon as he patted him on the head.

Jealous Eevee jumped into Red's arms, so for a couple seconds he hugged both of them.

. . .

The sun was already setting on Viridian City as Red's parents met on the way back to their house.

When they saw that the lights were on, the mother got kind of wary, but the father came to a quick conclusion that Red must have returned. His prediction came true when he opened the door, and instantly they could see Red's shoes and jacket in the front hall, and also smell the delicious food being prepared by their son. Red heard them entering so he peeked out of the kitchen, wearing an apron and a headscarf. He smiled happily and they responded in kind. While they were getting changed into their home clothes, he finished cooking and invited them to the dining room.

Soon, he came in, carrying two plates of food in his hands, one with spaghetti, the other with cheese and spinach cake. Eevee walked into the room graciously carrying a plate with three glasses of juice on his head. Charmander jumped onto one of the chairs and took the plate to put it on the table. After that, Red took out a candelabra, and the lizard Pokemon lit the candles using his Ember. Red took some of both the dishes and put them into the Pokemon's bowls before beginning the dinner with his parents, all the while remembering to warn Eevee about eating too quickly, as he was known to sometimes choke on his food.

The boy spent a pleasant evening with his parents, telling them about meeting Green, Professor Oak and befriending Charmander. The next day came, and he was ready to continue his journey. After checking the internet again, he learned that the second closest Gym should be located in Pewter City. Although there wasn't any indication that this one also wouldn't be closed, Red remained hopeful.

* * *

There was a lot of me ranting here so I decided to leave only the most interesting part of that. This isn't meant as strictly a retelling of the game. Already, the previous chapters had many differences, but I feel that this one is the most impacted by it. In the game, you don't fight anybody in Viridian City, you don't learn about Team Rocket until Mount Moon and the abandoned Gym situation is like "whatever". I struggle, but I try to make things make sense in a real world kind of way. Like, in the games, didn't Lance and the Elite Four wonder why the hell they didn't get any challengers for a while, since nobody could get the necessary eight badge? Or, how was Giovanni even appointed a Gym leader. Maybe this story will answer some of these questions based on what I think, or maybe not.


	4. Chapter 4: Bluebell.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Travelling through Virdian Forest, Red goes to sleep, not expecting a mysterious visitor in the middle of the night.

Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 4: Bluebell.

Red has been travelling through Viridian Forest for almost a week, and he was really getting fed up with the variety, or lack there of, this place had to offer. Although he was happy for any kind of Pokemon battle he could take part in, after fighting bug catchers every day, all he hoped for was someone who didn't use bug type Pokemon.

It was getting dark and the exit to the forest still didn't seem any closer, so the boy decided to set up a camp. That meant, having his Pokemon help with gathering sticks and stones for creating a campfire, while he used the biggest leaves he could find to cover a net hung up between a couple trees, creating a roof for the night.

After everything was done, Charmander lit the sticks, Red took out a couple berries he gathered during the day and started to slowly roast them over the fire. He left them propped up on the sharpened sticks he stabbed them on, to take a bottle of water and pour it into a bowl for his Pokemon. He was getting worried because they didn't see any stream for quite some time and it also hasn't been raining, so their water supply was dwindling.

After finishing their meal, Red put a blanket and a pillow on a layer of leaves which he gathered under his net roof. He put out the, trying to use as little of the water as possible. After that, he took a second blanket, returned Charmander to his ball and covered himself and Eevee before going to sleep.

. . .

Loud barking and something hitting his chest over and over wasn't the best way for Red to wake up. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the one behind this commotion was none other than Eevee.

"What's going on, buddy?" Red asked after the dog jumped off from him, to give him a chance to get up.

He slowly rubbed his eyes and yawned, still trying to wake up. When he went out from under his impromptu roof, he noticed the reason for why the Pokemon interrupted his rest. Right in front of him, between the resting place and the extinguished campfire, there was a strange yellow flower that was not there when they went to sleep. Eevee must have noticed its strong smell and became alarmed.

"Huh. How did this thing grow so fast? Especially without any sunlight" the boy pondered.

He tried touching it gently with a stick but nothing happened. He walked out a little further to see if maybe somebody planted it there on purpose but he didn't notice anything. Finally, a sudden realization hit him. There was a possibility that the flower was a Pokemon that for some reason walked over there and planted itself in the ground.

Since it's been already a couple minutes since he woke up, Red didn't feel like going back to sleep, so he decided to check if he was right by using his Pokedex. He went back towards the backpack which also was under the net roof. Eevee, who was still observing the mysterious plant, noticed that the teenager stopped in his tracks. When he looked over at what Red was staring at, he saw that the blanket under which they previously slept, had a suspicious bulge, as if somebody was still sleeping there.

"Curiouser and curiouser." Red commented while rubbing his chin with an inquisitive look on his face.

"Welp, here goes nothing." he exclaimed while quickly pulling the blanket off from whatever was under it.

"Wha... What?!"

To Red's and Eevee's surprise, the one who was hiding under the blanket was a brown-haired girl, around Red's age, and wearing a set of pink plaid pajamas. Neither losing her cover nor Red's yell caused her to wake up.

"What is going on here? First, that weird plant. Now this... I'm not sure what to make of this, buddy." the boy commented, turning to his Pokemon.

Eevee turned his head an gave out a quick sound, indicating that he wanted to know what they were supposed to do in that situation.

"Well... I can't do anything, can I? Let's just wait until this girl wakes up and then we'll get our answers."

. . .

The nose of the girl moved ever so slightly, as she smelled the aroma of slowly roasting berries. She licked her lips as a reflex, before opening her eyes. She got up to a sitting position and stretched out her arms. With a still dazed look on her face she turned her head to the left and then to the right. She noticed that wherever she was, clearly wasn't her tent, but wasn't really worried since she got a good sleep. She quickly stood up and began doing more stretching while making quiet sounds which were supposed to get her pumped up during the exercise.

Finally, after about 2 minutes, she turned around to see where that enticing smell came from. Red, surprised to see that, almost choked on the berry he was hitting, because he didn't want the girl to know he was staring at her exercise. She went up to him and sat on a log he prepared beforehand, while he himself was sitting on a flat rock, covered with leaves as to avoid any strain to his buttocks.

The girl looked at the food with glee in her eyes and then at Red with a hopeful expression of a puppy who wanted to be told that he was a good dog. The boy just nodded his head, and the girl took one of the sticks with an almost done berry and proceeded to turn it around as to roast it more evenly.

Finally, she began eating it. Red caught himself staring again, but he couldn't help being entranced by the pure joy which emanated from her face as she was gently chewing each bite of the berry. He put one of his hand on his heart, as if that was supposed to stop the increased heartbeat. Even though many of his friends were girls, he never was interested in any of them, especially considering that couple years of gap where he was shunned by them. He felt that this was the most intimate moment he ever shared with a person of the opposite sex, although they weren't really doing anything.

He calmed down after the girl finished eating and stood up again. She looked around, as if searching for something. When she spotted whatever it was, she started walking away without a word.

"Wait!" Red yelled, finally in full control of his feelings and with a clear mind.

The girl turned around with a confused look on her face. Then a light bulb seemed to have lit up over her head as she hit the palm of one of her hands with the other one closed in a fist.

"Thank you for the meal." she said while bowing cordially.

"That's... That's not really what I meant" Red sighed as he was trying to gather his thoughts "Okay... Okay, okay. First of, what is your name? Seco..."

"Blue." the girl interrupted before he could finish.

"Oh... Oh. Really? Like two weeks ago I me..."

"Really."

Red made a short sound of annoyance before speaking again "Let me finish what I want to say before you answer, okay?"

To his surprise, the girl remained completely silent for around 20 seconds.

"Are... Are you okay?"

"Oh. I just wasn't sure if you were done talking." she answered with a clearly honest look in her eyes.

"That's... fair. Anyway, my name is Red. I just wanted to say that it's weird that we are both named after colors since I met a guy named Green some time ago."

"Is it weird? Maybe we just all have parents with weak imagination."

"Yes." Red answered dumbfounded "That's certainly a possibility. But, what's more important than that is why did you sneak into my camp at 4 o'clock?"

"Oh. That wasn't on purpose. You see, I have my own camp over there." she said while pointing somewhere far away.

Red squinted his eyes to notice what could be a blue tent, about 200 meters away.

"Man, you have good eyesight. But, since your camp is over there, what are you doing here?"

The girl went into deep thought "I remember setting up the camp, eating some of my cookies, drinking juice and going to sleep... Then I woke up in the middle of the night and noticed that Bell was missing so I started to look around for him. When I finally found him, I was too tired to go back, and that's when I noticed that he was right in front of some place with blankets and a pillow so I went to sleep. That's about all I can remember."

"I... I think that's all you need to remember. By "Bell" you mean that thing?" Red asked while pointing at the mysterious flower he found during the night.

"Oh! I was so hungry that I forgot completely that he was there. Hey, Beeell!"

The flower moved, revealing that the yellow part was its head, as its small eyes opened. It slowly managed to pull its roots up from the ground, as Red was passing it by to finally get to his Pokedex.

"Huh. A Bellsprout. Grass... no surprise there. Also poison... Hmm. Well... After you get changed..." Red turned to the girl with a small blush on his face "...you can come back to eat some more if you want."

"Oh. Thanks for the offer. I'll be glad to take you up on that. Bell must also be hungry."

"Vee!"

The trainers turned their heads to the campfire to notice Eevee using its paw to hit a Weedle which was trying to get away with one of Red's berries. But the bug wasn't alone. A group of four other Weedle's took the chance provided by their friend to steal the other berries.

"Hey! Get back here!" Red yelled while running after the thieves.

When the bugs noticed that they couldn't outrun him, they began giving out a cry for help. The boy heard a buzzing sound getting closer and closer, and finally an angry face of a Beedrill appeared right in front of him. He managed to dodge its drill and jump back to a safe distance.

"If that's how you want to play... Eevee, it's time to teach these bozos a lesson."

"Wait." Blue interrupted before the dog could answer his trainers call.

She and Bellsprout walked by Red, stopping a short distance from Beedrill.

"I wanna pay you back for not getting angry at me for sleeping in your camp and for giving me food. At the same time... please never use the word "bozos" again." she said, giving Red a glare during those last words.

"O... Okay. Yeah. The floor... or I guess, the ground is yours."

The leader of the bug Pokemon wasn't too patient. He seemed confused with the exchange between the trainers for a short while but he quickly went on the offensive again. He tried to hit Blue with a Twineedle, but Bell jumped in front and knocked the attack to the side, causing the bug to miss.

Beedrill shifted his attention to the Grass Pokemon. He tried to use Twineedle again, but Bellsprout jumped out of the way and after receiving a command from Blue, used Vine Whip to catch one of Beedrill's arms and slam him into a tree. This caused the bug to go into a frenzy. He tried to hit his foe with a Fury Attack but due to his slim and nimble body, Bellsprout managed to dodge every attack while walking backwards. When the last hit was about to land, the plant Pokemon waited a little longer before jumping out of the way. Beedrill tried to follow him, only to notice that his drill was stuck in the tree.

"Hey. That's actually a good tactic." Red commented.

"I see that you underestimated me." Blue responded while jokingly making a sulking face.

"Ah. Sorry." the boy blushed out of embarrassment.

"I'm just joking. It's time to end this anyway. Bell, use Sleep Powder."

A cloud of white spores created from the leaves of the flower Pokemon fell on Beedrill's face, putting him to sleep. Bellsprout took the opportunity and proceeded to use Vine Whip on his opponent. This caused the bug to finally get released from the tree, but also to be knocked out for real. The group of Weedle's looked with worry at their leader, but they still seemed eager to fight back. Bell looked back to his trainer, and after receiving a nod of approval, he used Growth to make himself look much larger. This scared the Bug Pokemon for good. After they ran away, Blue congratulated Bell on his victory.

"Thanks for helping me out." said Red.

"Well, now we're even."

"I wanted to ask you... where are you travelling to?"

"Oh. I'm planning to collect Gym badges so I'm on my way to Pewter City."

"Well, you'll be happy to know that it's also my destination."

"Why would I be happy to know that?"

"Aah... Well, you seemed to like the berries I made so you could eat more of them if we travelled together."

Blue jumped away while doing something akin to a martial arts fighting stance, with Bell trying to copy her.

"My mom warned me about going along with strangers. How do I know that you're not gonna do something nasty to me?"

Red blushed again, and yelled out with a cracking voice "I already had the opportunity to! I didn't do anything, did I?!"

"Hmm. Yeah. I guess I can trust you." Blue calmed down "Oookay. I'm gonna get changed in my tent and will be back in a couple minutes."

"Fine. Take your time."

"On the other hand, I'm a little disappointed." Blue whispered, again making that sulking face, as she walked away towards her camp.

Red scratched himself on the head, thinking about what he just got himself into, when he heard Eevee's panicked barking. The only berry still on a stick was beginning to burn up, so the boy frantically tried to save it from the fire.

* * *

So, Red got himself a travelling companion. I didn't really expect Blue to turn out in this way. I had some plans for her, but her character was more bland, making me rethink of why would she even travel with Red. If she was just there to cheer him on like sometimes is the case in these types of stories it would be no good. So I made her into this quirky girl who goes from 0 to a 100 as soon as she gets something to eat. I've been watching some Lucky Star and K-on clips on youtube so I feel like they were a sort of inspiration for her character.

Also, the chapter wasn't planned out in such a way. The original idea seemed too similar to the second chapter so I changed everything. The only thing I was sure of, is that I wanted the Bellsprout and Beedrill fight in there. All the comedic and "romantic", if you can call it that, stuff just kinda happened. 


	5. Chapter 5: Riffraff Roof.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red tries to catch a Pokemon.

Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 5: Riffraff Roof.

"Get back here!" Red's yell could be heard by all the people on the sidewalk as he run past them in a hurry, accidentally bumping into some.

He didn't have time to apologize since he and Eevee were hot on a trail of a notorious thief, who just so happened to be a yellow electric rodent. They stopped at an intersection as the boy seemed to have lost the one they were following from his sight. Eevee barked while pointing his head across the street. Red noticed the escaping Pokemon running into an alley. He almost crossed the street without looking, but Eevee bit one of his pant legs to stop him from running into an oncoming car.

After that, they both quickly moved to where they last saw the thief. To their surprise, he wasn't in the alley, and since it lead to a dead-end, there wasn't really nowhere for him to go. Nowhere but up.

Red noticed a fire escape, so he ran up a wall for half a second before jumping off and grabbing on to the ladder, making it fall to the ground. He wanted to help Eevee up, but the Pokemon realized what tactic was used by their target, so he used a nearby dumpster like a springboard and landed on the lowest level of the stairs. Soon, he and Red were on the rooftop. The thief seemed to think that he managed to lose them so he was sitting there, trying to figure out what the thing he stole was exactly. Realizing that he was about to bite his Pokedex, Red yelled in shock "Don't do that!"

The rodent turned around, startled by the fact that his victims managed to reach him. Not knowing what to do, he left the Pokedex on the ground and started running away again. Red picked up the device but then turned his head in the direction of the yellow Pokemon.

"I got my Pokedex, but I still want to catch that Pikachu. He's smart and fast. Let's go, buddy!" he spoke to his Eevee.

The mouse Pokemon used his speed to jump from one roof to another. The boy and the dog followed suit, although the former was unsure of his jumping abilities and felt kind of unstable after landing. Pikachu didn't want to give up, and continued to traverse the city at the height of around 30 meters. Finally, he saw a big gap leading to an isolated building on the edge of the city so he used Quick Attack to jump over there, sure that he wouldn't be able to do it otherwise.

Red, getting closer to the end of the building he was on, was starting to become afraid of the jump. He used his quick wits and called out Charmander. While holding him in his hands, he gave him an order "Ember!"

The continuous onslaught of fiery balls propelled them through air, still barely allowing them to make it to the other side. Red threw Charmander onto the roof, while he used his hands to grab onto the parapet.

Eevee used the same method as Pikachu to get across and then both of Red's Pokemon tried to help him get up by pulling on his hands, but he assured them that he could do it himself.

When they were finally all there, the teenager was out of breath, but at least he knew he had time to catch it back as there wasn't anywhere the thieving Pokemon could escape to anymore. The Pikachu grabbed on to the ledge of the building and looked down as if trying to gauge if he could survive a fall. After realizing that there was nothing else he could do, he gathered up his courage, turned around and got on all fours while trying to make an angry face at Red, which was kind of hard because the boy, as most people probably would, found the Pokemon to be extremely cute. The case was different for Charmander. He didn't care about what kind of opponent he would face as long as he got a chance to fight.

"Ember!" Red ordered.

The fire Pokemon released his attack, but missed the target as Pikachu dodged it and proceeded to run towards the foe by using Quick Attack. The impact was so hard that the lizard had to dig his claws into the roof of the building to stop himself from falling off. He left about a meter of scratch marks before he stopped the momentum.

Suddenly, Pikachu ran up to Charmander before he could counterattack, but instead of hitting him with an attack, he smiled from cheek to cheek and an aura of comfort showered the fire Pokemon. Then, Pikachu quickly returned to his previous expression as he jumped in the air and spun around to deliver a blow with his tail, which for a second seemed to turn into a hard metal. The attack sent Charmander's head into the roof, leaving a small indentation in the building. When he got up, he was so angry that it seemed like he was about to go out of control.

"Wait!" Red's yell stopped him in his tracks.

The trainer frantically looked over the data provided by the Pokedex, realizing that Pikachu used a combination of moves called Play Nice and Iron Tail.

"You can't allow him to do that thing again. It lowers your strength."

Charmander listened to Red patiently, but at the same time he was looking at the mouse Pokemon who stood a couple meters away, grinning confidently. He was trying to provoke a reaction by pulling down an eyelid and sticking out his tongue, but Charmander held back his rage while waiting for a command from his trainer.

"Wait..."

Seeing as his opponent wasn't going to move, Pikachu used another Quick Attack.

"Wait..."

As the Pokemon was getting closer, Charmander was growing eager to go against his trainer's instructions and use Ember again.

"Now, Smokescreen!"

When Pikachu was about to hit Charmander, the lizard let out a thick, dark cloud of smoke from his mouth. Pikachu tried to stop as the darkness was enveloping him, only to get tripped up by Charmander's tail.

When the electric Pokemon got up, he couldn't see anything besides the smoke. His foe managed to get outside of the range of his own move and looked readily at his trainer, who nodded, signifying that Charmander had free reign to deal with Pikachu in whatever way he desired, as his way to victory was already paved. He went back into the fray. He scratched Pikachu on his back and disappeared again into the cloud.

When the mouse turned around to face his foe, another attack came from the opposite direction. Charmander kept repeating this pattern, which caused Pikachu to lose his cool and start to get angry. Finally he snapped and started continuously using Thunder Shock while spinning, being sure that sooner or later he would catch up with his opponent. He didn't realize that Charmander left the cloud again until he heard his growling.

The lizard pointed at the sky while running towards his trainer. Red understood what he meant and prepared both his hands. When the lizard reached him, the trainer used his arms like a catapult and propelled the Pokemon into air. He managed to get a couple meters into the air, right over the center of the cloud which has already started dissipating.

When Pikachu noticed a shadow on himself, he looked up, only to be hit by Charmander's Ember. The attack caused him to stop using Thunder Shock, as he hit the roof in pain. The lizard didn't let up, and started to spin as he plummeted towards his foe, to finally deliver a powerful attack with his tail into Pikachu's back.

After lifting himself off his opponent, Charmander picked him up by his tail and threw him over his shoulder. While the electric Pokemon was flying through the air, he was hit by another Ember. He tried to get up as quickly as he could as to avoid leaving himself an easy prey to another attack, but Charmander reached him faster than he expected, and unleashed a couple Scratches before using another Ember. The lizard was ready to keep fighting until he heard his trainer.

"That's enough."

Red came over to Pikachu, and Charmander, realizing that the battle was over and he was about to hit somebody who was helpless, walked backwards with an ashamed expression. The trainer patted him on the head reassuringly.

"You did a good job. Now, about you..." he turned to the electric Pokemon "...I don't want you to think I'm a heartless guy so take this."

He gave him an Oran Berry. Pikachu had a little trouble eating it, but he managed to regain some of his strength. At least enough to sit up and listen to what the boy had to say to him.

"I heard from the people in this city that this wasn't the first time you stole something. You seem to cause trouble to all the fruit and fish stands. I understand that you're doing this only because you don't have a home and it's hard to get food in another way if you're living in a city, but there are other ways. You have a talent that is being wasted while you use it for these kind of things. If you come with us, you can use your abilities in battle and I promise that you'll never have to be hungry. How about it?"

The mouse looked confused but then it closed its eyes, seemingly musing over Red's offer. Finally it opened them and pointed to the boy's pocket while giving out a couple shouts. The trainer reached in there and pulled out the Pokedex.

"Oh? You want to know how it works? I can show you that too. So how about it?" he said as he held up a pokeball in his other hand.

"Pika!" the Pokemon replied happily, after which he let himself be sucked into the device.

The boy stood up, as Eevee ran over from the other end of the roof. Red triumphally reached to the sky with the hand holding the pokeball, celebrating the addition of a new partner, as the other two joined him by jumping into air and giving out happy sounds.

"We should go to a Pokemon Center to heal you guys up. Also, I wonder what Blue has been up to during this time."

"Vee?"

"Huh?"

The Pokemon looked around.

"Oh yeah. How are we gonna get down from here?"

. . .

As Red walked into the Pokemon Center, he immediately heard Blue's voice calling him "Hey, Red!"

He noticed her sitting on a sofa in the corner of the room, holding a newspaper that she stopped reading to greet him. He put up his hand, showing that he wanted her to wait a while, as he walked towards the counter.

"Good afternoon." the nurse working there greeted him.

"Good afternoon. Please take care of my Pokemon." he said while putting the pokeballs with his three partners on the counter.

Even though Eevee didn't take part in the fight, he was still there during the whole chase so he must have exhausted at least some of his strength. Since healthcare was free and healing Pokemon didn't take a lot of time, Red saw no reason to not take advantage of that.

"Come back after a couple minutes." the nurse instructed him.

What she said was more of a suggestion than an order. After each Pokemon was healed, the pokeball holding it would be put aside and the trainer could return for his partners at any point during the day. In rare cases where somebody wouldn't show up to take back his Pokemon until the next day, the nurse had a responsibility to contact the trainer by phone. If she couldn't reach him for a week, she would have to call for services which take care of abandoned Pokemon by preparing them to either be given to new trainers or to be released into the wild, based on the Pokemon's will.

Red didn't have to worry about any of that, as he would return for his partners after a short while. He walked up to Blue and sat on an armchair which was perpendicular to the sofa she was on.

"How was your day?" she asked cordially.

"It was great. I got into a big chase and managed to catch a new Pokemon."

"What kind?"

"A Pikachu."

"Oh? They are so cute. You'll have to show it to me." the girls eyes lit up as she was saying that.

"What about you? What have you been up to?"

The girl stood up and rubbed her finger under her nose as a show of confidence.

"While you were out there playing around..." she began.

"Are you trying to start shi..."

"...I was busy kicking some serious ass." she continued, ignoring Red's comment.

"What do you mean?"

"Behold!" she shouted while holding a small grey pin right in front of his face.

"What is that? Wait... Is that one the badges?"

"You got that right. I went to the Gym and won it in a fight that will be remembered in history books as my first step to becoming the greatest trainer this world has ever known."

"I think you may be getting a little ahead of yourself."

"I think you are a little jealous." the girl teased him.

Red blushed a little while showing frustration on his face.

"I'm not! As soon as my Pokemon are healed, I'm gonna go there and get my own badge! You can come and see how a real trainer does it!"

"With pleasure. I just want to warn you that your Pokemon may have a little trouble, considering that the leader of this Gym uses rock type Pokemon."

"Rock type, huh? So you had advantage with Bellsprout."

"Also with my other Pokemon."

"Your other Pokemon? I didn't know you had one."

"You''ll get to see it once the need for me to use it again arrives. Bell is already plenty strong, but this one is on a whole other level."

While wondering what Blue's other Pokemon could have been, Red glanced at the newspaper laying on the table, which the girl has been previously reading.

"Anything interesting in the news?"

"Same old, same old. Team Rocket are causing trouble in various places. They are getting rid of the other gangs, while growing stronger themselves. The police is rather helpless. They don't even know what the Rocket's goal is."

"Team Rocket... I almost forgot about them."

"What is it? Did you meet them before?"

"Yeah. And ever since, I wanted to meet a Gym leader, to ask him some things."

"Your Pokemon are healed!" the nurse yelled from the other end of the room.

Since the place was almost empty her voice didn't really disturb anyone. Red got up and started walking toward the counter.

"Time to get my badge and my answers."

* * *

Hello. It's me again. As always providing some (possibly) interesting facts about this chapter. The major thing is that I finally decided to split a chapter. Originally, Red catching Pikachu and fighting Brock was supposed to take place in one chapter but the first part of that came out longer than I expected.

Another thing is, I learned that the word riffraff refers to a group of people, not one person. I probably got subconsciously confused by The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I decided to keep it in the title anyway, because it just sounds funny. I guess it kidna works? The riffraff was supposed to refer to Pikachu being a thief, but since Red understood why Pikachu was doing what he was doing it was like "Hey, I get it, I would probably do the same." So maybe "riffraff" means both Red and Pikachu.

Anyways, the next chapter, as you already know is gonna have the fight with Brock. If you thought this one had a stupid title, wait until you see the next one.


	6. Chapter 6: The Iron Tail of Pikachu.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red fights against Brock.

Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 6: The Iron Tail of Pikachu.

Since she already knew the way to the Gym, Blue walked slightly in front, skipping happily while humming some melody unknown to Red. She glanced at him from time to time, to look at his focused expression, caused by him trying to come up with a tactic to use in the upcoming battle. When he finally seemed to reach a decision, he looked up and his eyes met with the girl's, as she quickly turned her gaze forward, while trying not to seem embarrassed by being caught.

"Say, Red..."

"Yeah?"

"Why did you become a Pokemon trainer?"

That question struck him a kind of odd so he answered unsure "I mean... to catch Pokemon and collect badges... That's mostly what trainers do, right?"

"That's not really what I meant. You know that if you collect badges you get a chance to participate in Pokemon League, right?"

"Yeah."

"Aside from the four best trainers getting prize money and becoming famous for their abilities, the Pokemon League is also a stage for people to say whatever they want. You have the possibility to reach the biggest audience you ever could and convince them to support you, since it's easier for people to get behind a person who they already see as capable."

Red wondered if he had anything he would want so many people to hear about "I guess I just haven't given it much though. I'm just going as far as my abilities and my Pokemon will allow me. Don't get me wrong. It would be cool to become the master, but there can only be one. Even the two of us... I mean, if we get into the League it's possible that we will have to face each other."

"I suppose..." Blue seemed to get lost in her thoughts

"Do you have anything?"

"What's that?"

"Do you have anything that you would want everyone to hear about?"

The girl stopped and spun around to point a finger at the boy.

"Have you ever heard of Sevii Archipelago?"

"Sevii..." Red tried to search for the name in his mind "...I feel like I did but I'm drawing a blank at the moment."

"No surprise there. Even though Sevii Islands are so close to Kanto, many people here haven't ever heard about them. I come from one of those islands and I feel that they would be more appreciated if just more people knew about them. We have great agriculture and many good fishmen but there are no established trade routes between Sevii and the mainland. I have family and friends there whose business would surely bloom if it was just easier to reach more clients. My hope is to win the Pokemon League and tell everybody what a great place it is."

"Wow!" Red yelled as he subconsciously grabbed both of Blue's hands "That's such a great dream!"

Since his face was getting a little too close to hers, without the boy himself realizing, she decided to comment on that politely "Red? Could you back off a little?"

When he noticed what he was doing, he let go of her and jumped back with a blush on his face. The girl felt reassured whenever she saw that he got embarrassed by these types of situations easier than herself.

"It's just..." Red spoke up again "...I don't really have a great dream. I worked hard towards becoming a Pokemon trainer but I'm still not sure if it was worth it. I just kinda want to enjoy myself and if I win, I win. If I lose, I lose."

"There's nothing wrong with that." the girl started chuckling "Actually, this type of attitude suits you much more."

"Hey! Are you making fun of me again?"

"No way~!" she said with an intentionally condescending tone "Come on! We're almost at the Gym!" she continued with a happy voice as she started running forward.

. . .

The Gym looked very similar to the one Red saw at Viridian City, although with a couple differences. It was located in an open area at the edge of the town, it's roof was grey instead of yellow, it was in an overall better state and the words next to the entrance read "Pewter City Pokemon Gym". There also wasn't anyone there to try to drive the trainers away.

The automatic doors opened and Blue allowed the boy to pass in front of her. Inside, he looked around with curiosity. It seemed like the Gym was separated into at least two rooms as the one they arrived in was rather small and contained only a receptionist desk and what seemed to be a waiting area. A middle aged man, in a blue suit and glasses, looked up from the computer he was using and stood up with a smile after seeing the trainers.

"Welcome to the Pewter City Pokemon Gym." he declared.

"Oh. Good afternoon." Red responded, while struggling with whether to bow during that.

"You're here again Miss Blue?" the man asked while adjusting his glasses as if to make sure that he didn't make a mistake in recognizing her.

"I'm just here to see this guy lose." she responded while pointing at Red with her thumb.

"Oy."

"I meant "win". Of course." Blue added quickly, hoping that she didn't cross a line in teasing Red.

"Oh. I see. The leader didn't have any appointments for a battle and no one came here since you left, so he should be free right now. I'll give him a call." after saying that, the receptionist clicked a button near the computer and spoke through some kind of intercom "There is a trainer here who wishes to fight you. Should I let him in?"

The teenagers were too far to hear the answer, but the man stood up after a couple seconds and pointed with his right hand to the doors leading to the next room. They understood what he meant, and started walking in that direction. The automatic doors opened, and after a couple meters of walking through a small corridor they reached a massive room which clearly was the place where Red was to fight for the badge.

About eighty percent of the floor was missing and replaced with ground and several boulders to create a fighting arena in the middle of the room. On opposite sides of the arena were two slightly elevated platforms. To the right and left of the opening through which the trainers came in, there were two sets of stairs, leading to a balcony which Red deduced to be an area for spectators.

"I'm gonna go up there." declared Blue.

Red nodded and himself decided to stand on the platform which was on this side of the room. Soon, a set of automatic doors opened in the corridor which was the other entrance to this place.

A young man with dark skin and very thin eyes, wearing only brown pants held up by a belt, entered the room. After arriving on the platform opposite of Red's, he seemed as he was about to say something, but after noticing Blue, he changed his attention to her for a short while. He waved slowly and she responded, but slightly more energetic. Then, he turned to Red.

"I'm Brock. The leader of the Pewter City Pokemon Gym! Sta..."

"I know." Red interrupted him.

"What?"

"I'm in the Pewter City Pokemon Gym. Unless I stumbled in here by mistake, you can safely assume that I'm here to challenge this Gym in a battle for a badge. And since the receptionist informed the leader that I'm here and the leader agreed to fight me, and we're both standing here, it would be weird if you were anyone besides the leader."

"Oh no. He started again." Blue said to herself, too quietly for any of the other two to hear her.

"I get where you come from..." Brock started "...but that was kind of rude."

"Not my intention. I just wanna get over all the useless chit-chat and get right to the fight."

"You seem to exude confidence! I like that! Still, it would be nice to at least know your name before we fight."

"I'm Red. Red from Viridian City."

"Why... Why would I care about where you're from?"

"Hmm... I'm not sure. I just watched that one cartoon when I was a kid and the main character always said where he was from, even when he was in another region and no one could have any idea where his hometown was. I just wanted to try it out. Now, when I'm introducing myself to somebody, I will know better."

"Oh-kaaay. How many badges have you collected so far?"

"None. Does that matter?"

"Yes. Each Gym leader has to use a certain number of Pokemon based on how many badges the challenger has in his possession. Since you have none, I will be using two of my Pokemon. Meanwhile, you can use however many Pokemon you want to."

"What?!" Red was seriously surprised.

"Uh... Are you okay?"

"That's not fair. I don't want to win because of an advantage."

"Well... It's assumed that the Gym leader's advantage is that they know the layout of their arenas."

"I don't care about that!" Red yelled with anger.

Blue whistled to show her surprise. Because of how petty Red could sometimes be, she never expected him to get so fired up over something in a serious manner.

"I will also use two Pokemon! Is there a problem?!"

Brock was astounded, but he responded with a faint smile. It was a long time since someone so passionate challenged him to a fight.

"No. No problem. Just one more thing."

"What is it?" Red was thrown out of his mood.

"You can't use your Pokemon to turn on the sprinklers."

Red looked up to see the devices which he didn't notice before, because of how high the ceiling was.

"Why would I... Did... Did someone seriously do that in the past?"

"Yes. And it was a pain to clean up and refill them. But this time it's seriously all I had to say. Are you ready?"

"Sure am!"

"Let's begin! I choose Geodude!"

Brock threw his pokeball and a Pokemon which looked like boulder with arms and a face, appeared on the area.

"Let's go, Eevee!"

Red released the Pokemon who has been in his pokeball ever since being healed at the Pokemon Center. The dog went up to his trainer and stood up on his hind legs while propping himself on the boy's leg. Red recognized that as the pose he would do whenever he missed him.

He gave the Pokemon a pat on the head and then pointed in the direction of the opponent. Understanding that it was his time to fight, Eevee went back onto the arena.

Red quickly checked the Pokedex before the fight. True to Blue's words, Geodude was a rock type Pokemon, but he also was a ground type, which Red had not taken into consideration when thinking about the tactics for this fight. Since Blue's Bellsprout was effective against both, the girl must have not noticed the difference.

After seeing that both Red and his Pokemon were ready for the battle, Brock gave his first command "Geodude, let's see what they have to show. Use Defense Curl."

The boulder brought up his arms to his body, covering his face and giving him a more evenly spherical shape.

"Is he underestimating us? Use Quick Attack!"

Eevee fired off like a bullet in the direction of his opponent.

"Turn!" Red instructed him when, the dog was close enough to his target.

Eevee changed the direction right in front of Geodude and veered a little to the right. Brock was surprised as he saw the Pokemon run past him, jump off the wall and come right back in a fluid sequence of moves which allowed him to deliver a blow to Geodude's back.

The rock Pokemon unfolded its arms and stopped itself from hitting the ground, avoiding any further damage.

"Dodge!" Brock yelled.

Geodude looked up to see that Eevee was continuing his attack and managed to use one of his arms to propel himself in the air.

"Counterattack!" ordered the leader.

Knowing what was expected of him in this types of situations, after facing many a challenger before, the boulder used its other hand to punch the dog in the head, with a force so great, that he completely stopped it in place. Geodude landed on the ground and quickly grabbed Eevee by the neck.

"It's over now" Brock declared triumphally.

Geodude held up Eevee above him and proceeded to repeatedly punch him with his free hand. The dog was struggling to get out of the enemy's grasp but was the grip was too strong. Although the Pokemon itself felt completely helpless, his trainer was quick to come up with a solution to the situation.

"Use Sand Attack with your tail!"

The Dog didn't notice until then that he could reach the ground and since he usually used that move with his legs, the command came as unexpected. He listened to it nevertheless. Sand flying into Geodude's eyes caused it to instinctively try to cover them, giving the dog a chance to escape. He ran to a safe distance and used the couple seconds, during which Geodude cleaned his eyes, to regain breath.

"A normal Quick Attack is too risky. If Eevee takes a couple more punches, the fight could be over..." Red muttered to himself during this time, but decided to speak up after coming up with what to do next "Eevee! Time for our signature move! Quick Attack Version B!"

"What?" Blue and Brock said simultaneously.

Eevee began using Quick Attack to run around the opponent who seemed just as confused by what was happening as his trainer.

"Mirror Room!"

Multiple afterimages of Eevee surrounded Geodude, and soon he started being attacked from every possible direction.

"Tackle!" Brock yelled for nothing, as his Pokemon was unable of any movement with Eevee closing in on him.

Finally, the rock Pokemon couldn't be even seen as he was encircled by a brown blur.

"Okay. That's enough." Red commanded.

The dog stopped in the best way he could, but his speed was still so great that he turned in such a way as to fall into Red's hands. The boy caught him, this way almost falling off the platform.

"Return." Brock said while pointing the pokeball in Geodude's direction.

He turned his gaze to Red, and after putting down his Pokemon, the challenger responded with a confident smile.

"It seems you are stronger than I thought. Still, I usually use Geodude to test the water before I use this guy. Go, Onix!"

Red didn't immediately realize what he was faced with since a big shadow suddenly obscured his vision. After a second, he looked up to see that it was caused by an enormous snake made up of boulders. Eevee backed up, visibly afraid of fighting this new foe.

"Eevee, don't worry. Such a big thing is probably really slow. Let's keep using Quick Attack and we'll win."

Reassured by his trainer, the dog started running at the enemy.

"Bide!" ordered Brock.

Although Onix remained in the same place, he was keenly observing Eevee's movement, while the normal Pokemon run around him to hit the part of the snake's body which was touching the ground. The first attack hit and didn't seem to bother the opponent at all. Not giving up, Eevee repeated it two more times. Brock noticed that after the third attack, his Pokemon closed his eye for a second as an expression of pain.

"It's ready! Time to unleash it!" the leader announced.

A white ball of light formed in Onix's mouth and shot out in Eevee's direction. The Pokemon jumped up to avoid it when it got too close for comfort, but when he glanced backward, the ball changed direction and like a homing missile followed the Pokemon. He tried to avoid it a couple more times, but was too focused on it and ran straight into one of the boulders covering the arena, allowing the attack to reach him.

"Eevee!" Red yelled hopelessly.

The Pokemon fainted and the boy had to use its pokeball to call it back. As she noticed his sad expression, Blue felt kind of ashamed. All the time they were together, Red didn't lose his confidence so seeing him like that and her not being able to help in any way, put her in an uncomfortable mood. Red's response to the loss was brought about by the fact that it was the first time it happened to him and Eevee.

He put away the pokeball and grabbed onto the other two in which he carried his partners. Looking at them for a while, he was analyzing which Pokemon to choose next, but also remembering that he wasn't alone. Eevee was his oldest companions but he still could count on these new ones. He finally reached the decision and looked up at Brock with a smile.

"Let's go, Pikachu!"

Red threw the pokeball into air causing Pikachu to be released at the height of Onix's face. The mouse shoot out a couple small sparks from its cheeks as it somersaulted. Onix moved slightly while looking at this acrobatic feat. He noticed as mischievous smile at Pikachu's face which to his surprise turned to a more pleasant one while the electric Pokemon landed on the ground. This, for some reason even he was unsure of, caused him to be more wary than he was previously.

"Why did he choose Pikachu?" Blue said under the nose.

She looked at Red. Even though his usual confidence returned, she suspected that it could be a facade. It seemed illogical to her that he would choose electricity over fire. While both of his Pokemon would be less effective against Onix, at least Charmander would have a bigger pool of moves to choose from. But Red thought this over and was sure that he made the right choice so she also decided to have faith in him.

"Before we continue, can I ask for one thing?"

Red's question surprised Brock but he was curious to see if this was part of some plan "Uuh, yeah. What is it?"

"Can you show us the badge that we are fighting for?"

"I know you're not trying to trick me, but I don't really see the point." answered the leader.

Nevertheless, he reached into his pocket, grabbed one of the couple of badges he always had prepared for the victorious challengers and showed it off to Red, making sure that the boy could see the front of it.

"How about it, Pikachu?"

"What?" Brock said in surprise.

After looking at the mouse Pokemon to understand what was happening, he felt shivers run through his body. Seeing the prize he was about to fight for, caused the electric Pokemon to show off a sinister expression, even more unsettling than the one he had shown to Onix. One would not expect to feel such a strong sense of greed from any being.

Brock quickly hid the badge as if he hoped that it would cause Pikachu to return to his cheery expression. It seemed to work to an extent. What was now painted on the Pokemon's face, resembled the same confidence that his trainer was exuding for a while.

"You saw that, Pikachu? Not only was that thing pretty, but it's also not something that just anybody can get. We agreed that you wouldn't steal anymore, but I'll let you touch it any time you want if we win this battle."

The Pokemon turned his head so that he could see his trainer with one eye and nodded while maintaining his confident smile.

"Okay. We have to be careful about that Bide move."

"Don't think that's the only tactic we have. Rock Tomb!"

Onix opened its mouth which shot out a boulder which grew in size as it was getting further from the Pokemon, and when it was about 2 meters in diameter it split into several smaller ones and they began to rain down on the arena.

"Avoid it with Quick Attack!"

Pikachu began zigzagging through the field, barely avoiding some of the boulders, not realizing that he was being led into a trap.

When the mouse was efficiently close to Onix's tail, Brock yelled out "Bind!"

The rock snake ensnared Pikachu with the end of his tail and began to tighten the grip when suddenly he stopped and his eyes became blank for a while. Pikachu took that chance to wiggle out and ran off to a safe distance.

"What happened?!" Brock was in shock.

Onix came back to his senses, and his trainer noticed that after a couple second, small traces of electricity flashed through the stone body.

"I guess you never met a trainer who thought about using an electric Pokemon against you. I got this device from Professor Oak..." Red said as he showed Brock the Pokedex "...and one of its useful functions is that it can tell you about a Pokemon's ability. Although electric attacks won't work on Onix, my Pikachu has an ability called "Static" which has a chance of paralyzing the opponent, even if it's a ground Pokemon."

"Is that why he chose Pikachu instead of Charmander?" pondered Blue.

"You're definitely one of the most interesting trainers I've faced."

"He didn't say that to me." the girl grumbled, unheard by the others.

"I didn't mention it before, but I also used Eevee's ability to my advantage." added Red.

"Don't think that this will stop us! Onix, use Screech!"

The rock Pokemon opened its mouth again, but this time instead of a boulder, he let out an agonizing sound which for a moment deafened both everyone besides itself and its trainer who covered his ears in time. Pikachu felt weaker after getting hit with this sound. He looked at his paws with a puzzled look, which gave Onix a chance to attack again.

"Rock Tomb!"

This time, the mouse Pokemon didn't manage to dodge the first of the falling boulders, which landed right next to him while hitting his face and knocking him into another one that just landed. The rest scattered around without damaging him, but now there was almost nowhere to move to. The spaces between boulders were too tight to fit and using Quick Attack on top of them could cause the loss of balance.

"Get on top of him!" ordered Red.

Pikachu listened to the command, and before the foe had a chance to react, he jumped onto his body and ran up it till he reached the head. Onix looked up in confusion.

"Play Nice!"

Pikachu smiled cheerfully at his opponent, and while the move lowered Onix's offensive abilities it also caused him discomfort instead of pleasure, since he already had preconceptions about the electric Pokemon's personality. Afraid of what hid behind that fake expression, Onix started to flail around in hope of throwing it off. Pikachu looked in his trainers direction while holding onto Onix's horn and after receiving a thumbs up gesture, he let go and smoothly landed on the railing of the balcony opposite of the one Blue was on.

"This is our chance! Use Rock Tomb!"

Onix shoot out a boulder at Pikachu. Since the target was closer, it didn't have time to split before hitting but the giant rock missed and indented itself into the railing, while Pikachu dodged to the side.

"Again! More to the left!"

Onix repeated the attack, and although the electric Pokemon managed to also avoid this one, he was now stuck between two rocks and a hard place. He still had a little of space to move but not enough to dodge the next attack.

"Rock Tomb one last time!"

"Iron Tail!"

Pikachu jumped towards the approaching attack and caused his tail to be covered in steel which allowed him to counterattack. The boulder was hit back straight into Onix's face. Parts of it were crushed but most reached the face of the rock Pokemon, causing him harm. While Onix wasn't overly hurt damaged by that reversal, he lost sight of his foe as the crushed boulder produced a cloud of dust. Brock was staring up, trying to figure out what happened to Pikachu but when he finally managed to do it, it was too late.

"Iron Tail!"

The mouse Pokemon hitting the boulder was not only meant to cause damage to the opponent, but also to launch him even higher so that he could grab onto one of the sprinklers mentioned previously by the leader. When the first attack was done, Pikachu dove down while spinning to add more impetus to his attack. It was so strong that Onix's head plummeted to the ground, causing him to be hurt even more by the boulders already scattered on the field. Before he could realize what was happening, Pikachu jumped up and spun around to deliver a second blow with his tail. He was preparing to continue but was stopped by Brock's shout.

"Enough!"

Pikachu looked at Red and when the trainer nodded, he traversed the boulders to reach him. Brock used that time to walk over to Onix and caress his head.

"You did good, buddy." he praised him while returning him to the pokeball.

Next, the leader walked over to the challenger. Blue also left the balcony and was standing a little behind Red.

"I want to congratulate you and your Pokemon on winning this battle. As a reward, the Boulder badge is yours." Brock said as he handed over the proof of victory.

Red looked at it for a while before kneeling down so that Pikachu could also take it into its hands and feel the result of his hard work.

"I know that you will go on to achieve great things. Meanwhile, I will have to contact my cleaning crew and get this place cleaned up before the next challenger arrives."

Hearing those words, Red realized that there was no time to waste so he quickly said "Could you explain one thing before we leave?"

"Sure. What is it?"

* * *

I have a couple explanations if somebody didn't catch the references:

1\. The title is a pun on the manga Electric Tale of Pikachu.

2\. There are two references to the Pokemon anime. One is poking fun at how Ash always says that he's from Pallet Town, and the other at how he won against Brock. Still, I decided to bring back the sprinklers later in the chapter and use them in a different way.

3\. Red calling out his Pokemon with the phrases "Let's go, Eevee!" and "Let's go, Pikachu!" is a reference to the upcoming Pokemon games. Red having both of these Pokemon is in no way influenced by the announcement of these games and was planned long ago. I just give him Pokemon that I like and ones that fit a protagonist.

There are two other things I wanted to mention. First is Blue's development. It barely began, but what I mean is the beginning of this chapter where she talked about why she wants to win the Pokemon League. Blue feels very much like a female Red. They have similar personalities and that's part of why they get along so well while still making fun of one another, but I felt like I had to make her more dinstinct.

In the original plans for this story, her coming from Sevii Islands wasn't mentioned until much later and I feel that having this established from the beginning works better, especially with what I have planned for her down the line(eeeh, maybe, I'm not sure).

The other thing is, I worked on making at least each of Red's Pokemon have a different personality. It's kinda harder to do it for animals than for people but I hope you can see it through the desciptions in this and previous chapters. By that I mean, Eevee acts pretty much like any stereotypical dog, who is happy whenever his with his owner and likes to play around, Charmander is very prideful and eager to get into fights, which I guess is also a stereotype for fire Pokemon, and lastly Pikachu, who although he stopped his thieving ways, still retains a mischievous nature and can be easily convinced into anything as long as there is something to gain from it.

I decided to make Brock's Onix a composite of his Gen 1 and Gen 3 Onix to make the fight more interesting.

And lastly, I never gave a description of Blue's clothes since in her first appearance she wore pajamas but I guess she just looks like Leaf/the female character from FireRed and LeafGreen.


	7. Chapter 7: Off the Rails.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red and Blue go spelunking.

Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 7: Off the Rails.

After defeating Brock and getting the Boulder badge Red was ready to get some answers about what happened to him in Viridian City.

"My question is..." the boy began.

"Wait. Is it going to take long?"

"Uuh... Kinda depends on you."

"Then let's sit down in the backroom." Brock said while pointing with his thumb to the opposite side of the room they were in.

"Okay. Pikachu, return." Red called back his Pokemon and soon the three humans went around the arena, into a corridor and through automatic doors to reach the place Brock mentioned.

It was clear that the backroom wasn't what is normally understood when someone uses that word. It had a bed, a sink, a small table with a portable oven on it, a tv, a wooden chest, a bookshelf, a device similar to the one used in Pokemon Centers to heal Pokemon and two sofas. Brock made a gesture towards the sofas, telling the guests to take their seats while he walked over to the chest and took out a jar which immediately after being opened, released a strong aroma of tea leaves.

"You want some?" he said to the trainers while filling the kettle with water.

Both of them shook their heads from side to side, so he stopped before he would have more water than he needed. He put the kettle on the portable oven and sat on the sofa opposite to the one the teenagers were already on.

"So, what did you want to ask me?" the leader asked while leaning forward intently.

"Oh, man. How to phrase this?" Red tried to think of a way to get to the truth the as quick as possible "I... What do you know about the Gym in Viridian City?"

Brock looked slightly surprised, but immediately regained his composure and proceeded to respond "Well... There are some things that I could tell you about it and some that I can't. Not because I don't want to... It's just... That place and the leader that owns it are both very mysterious."

"What do you mean?" Blue also became interested.

"I'm sure you guys both know that there are 8 Gyms in Kanto. What you may not know is that for a long time there were only 7. There isn't a specific rule for how many Gyms a region needs. I heard there are some where they don't have Gyms at all. But it is kind of assumed that you need 8 Gyms to hold an official Pokemon League tournament. The problem was that the Kanto Pokemon League Organization Committee just didn't have enough money. Then, about 10 years ago, a mysterious man offered to help create an eight Gym under the condition that he be the leader and the gym would still be privately owned by him, so he could close it down any time he wanted. It seems he was very rich and beside building that Gym, he invested in the other ones, in the Pokemon League stadiums and in promoting the lifestyle of a Pokemon trainer."

A whistle interrupted Brock so he turned off the oven and poured the hot water into a cup filled with tea leaves, after which he sat back down.

"He seems like a great guy." Blue commented.

"Yeah. I wasn't a leader back then. I got this job after my father passed 2 years ago. But, while that man helped us all greatly, he was also a very mysterious person. Most of the leaders, while not being obligated to do it, attend the Pokemon League as spectators. After battling many trainers, some of us pick favorites who we'd like to see win the League, and you can't get better seats than ours. During my first year as a leader, this man was the only one that didn't attend the League. I tried asking the others about him. It seems that Mr. Koga and Doctor Blaine both know him, although the first one doesn't seem to like him, while both of them, didn't reveal anything particularly interesting about him. I know he's a male, that he uses ground type Pokemon and is very strong. He also helped Doctor Blaine in his research, although I have no idea what's that about either."

Brock took a quick break to regain his breath.

"He caused some problems for the League. He insisted that he'd be the last leader that every trainer had to face but he didn't announce it anywhere so many trainers would complain to other leaders about being turned away at his door."

"Maybe that's what happened to me?" Red wondered.

"When were you there?"

"2 weeks ago? I think."

"Then that's not it. After helping develop the League and the causing problems for the people his campaign encouraged to be trainers, he suddenly disappeared about a couple months before the last League. They sent some people to contact him, but the Gym was closed and nobody could come into contact with him. Many trainers couldn't attend the League because they didn't get the last badge. This time around, we are back to needing only 7 badges to get into the League. Of course, there are different ways, like letters of recommendation and such."

"That all seems very suspicious. Especially after what I encountered there."

"Why did you go there anyway?"

"I just searched the internet for the closest Gym. I only looked up the location and didn't notice the note that said it was closed down."

"I see. So what happened there?"

"Was it Team Rocket?" Blue interjected.

"Team Rocket?!" Brock was so shocked that he stood up.

"Yes. You could say that I'm not really into news so I haven't heard about them before meeting one of their members in front of the Viridian City Gym." Red responded.

"What was he doing there?" the girl asked.

"It seemed like he was protecting it. He spotted me when I was trying to get inside and tried to get rid off me. He really didn't want anybody to know that I saw him there. I beat him in a Pokemon battle and he ran away. What do you think about it?"

Brock started pacing around the room with an expression filled with concern. He gave a couple quick glances to Red and finally stopped next to his tea and took a few sips to calm himself down.

"I'm sure that you're telling the truth. You really don't seem like a bad person. But I will have to ask you to not pursue this any longer. Team Rocket are very dangerous, especially when they act as a group. I'll contact the League and the police to try to learn what's going on. I'll make sure to call you if I learn anything. Is that fine with you?" the leader said and extended his hand to the trainer.

Red stood up and answered with a handshake and the words "You got it."

Soon after that, the trainers left and Brock was left alone to ponder the possibilities of the connection between the mysterious Gym leader and Team Rocket.

. . .

Several days later, the colorful duo arrived at Mount Moon and were resting at the Pokemon Center located close to the entrance of a cave system which led to the other side and further to Cerulean City. Blue returned to the corner in which Red was playing with Pikachu, and attached both of the pokeballs housing her Pokemon to her belt. Red squinted his eyes at her and seeing that, Pikachu tried to mimic him.

"What?" Blue was startled after seeing their faces.

"You went out to train?"

"Yeah."

"And you used your other Pokemon."

"Yeah.

"When are you gonna show it to me?"

"Oh, give it a rest. I want it to be a surprise. You won't see him until I'll need to save your ass."

"My ass? I can take care of it by myself! Hmph."

"Excuse me?" a sweet sounding, quiet voice reached their ears.

Both of them looked to the side to see a bald, slightly overweight, old man with a kind smile.

"Good morning, youngsters. Do you have some time to spare?"

"Sure. What is it?" Blue answered.

"I see that you are Pokemon trainers. I was once a Pokemon trainer myself but as you see I'm too old for this stuff. That's why I decided to give out my Pokemon. I can give you a very rare Pokemon. Not for free, of course. I have to gather money for my retirement."

"Uhh... I'm not sure. What Pokemon is it?" Red asked.

"I can't tell. If I tell, you'll probably try to haggle. You have to pay 500 gold upfront and there's also no take backs. I warn you, but it's still a really great deal. So, how about it?"

Red looked at the man with a helpless expression. He thought about how he wouldn't like to release the Pokemon, even if he was not satisfied with it.

"I don't want it." Blue said nonchalantly.

"What? Are you sure?!" the man went into panic.

"Yeah. I have to conserve money so I decided that I'm only gonna use 6 Pokemon on this journey. I don't want to take chances with something that could prove not useful. No offense."

"How about you, boy?" the man asked with a helpless tone.

"I..." Red started.

"Help!" a yell ringed out from the entrance to the Pokemon Center.

Red immediately stood up to see what's going on. He saw a male trainer who was out of breath and had a badly hurt Butterfree in his arms. The nurse immediately ran over to him and proceeded to put the Pokemon in a restorative chamber. Red noticed that the boy had four pokeballs attached to his belt but one of them was cracked. Ignoring the old man who was still trying to get him to buy the supposedly rare Pokemon, the teenager quickly approached the trainer who was trying to wipe off tears from his face.

"What happened?" Red asked.

The trainer looked up and saw not only Red, but also Blue who reached out with a hand holding a napkin. The person took it and wipe away the tears.

"It was Team Rocket." he said.

Red felt a cold chill run through his spine. Blue was very shocked, but still more curious about what her friends reaction was like so she glanced at his face. She jumped a little while she saw that Red was grinning from ear to ear. His eyes looked like the ones of a hungry beast seeing its prey.

"They are inside Mount Moon." the trainer continued while looking down, so he didn't notice how his words affected the duo "I think they are trying to gather Moon Stones, but they are attacking every Pokemon and trainer who sees them. They beat all my Pokemon and destroyed Butterfree's pokeball... I..."

He started crying again.

"Don't worry." Red said while passing him and patting on the back "I'm gonna get them."

Blue followed him outside the Pokemon Center.

"What do you mean "I'm gonna get them"? What are you planning to do exactly?" the girl asked.

"Brock didn't contact us yet. Aren't you curious about why a Team Rocket member protected the Gym in Viridian?"

"I am. But don't you remember what he said? They are dangerous. You saw what happened to that guy." she tried to reason with him but judging by his face, she saw that her efforts were futile.

As they walked onward, Red's expression lessened in intensity. He looked back at Blue who although visibly worried, still walked a couple steps behind him.

"Hey. If you're scared, you don't have to come with me."

"What?!"

After spending some time with her, Red knew how to press her buttons so that she wouldn't be down.

"I'm sure that I'll kick more Team Rocket butt than you!" she yelled out without giving it much thought.

"Yeah. Especially with that secret weapons of yours."

Finally realizing what the boy was trying to do, the girl blushed in embarrassment and stuck out her tongue at him.

. . .

They finally reached the entrance. It was so big that a stone hallway was lit up by the sunlight falling into the cave system. Nevertheless, Red called out Pikachu so that he could use his electricity to light up the way later on. After a couple meters of walking, they reached a room which had multiple openings leading in different directions. The trainers began looking around to decide which one to enter since at first glance all seemed the same.

"This one leads to Cerulean City" Blue noted after spotting a sign above one of the openings.

"We don't know that they're not in one of the other ones." Red said while looking from one hallway to another "We should have asked that guy about the way."

"Whose fault is this?" Blue said with annoyance in her voice.

"I have an idea."

"What is it?"

"Let's get Pikachu to decide."

"Why do you think that's a good idea?"

"Pikachu has a nose for treasures. And Moon Stones are like treasures, aren't they? So he'll know the way."

"There's so much wrong with that logic, but we're not gonna reach any other conclusion so we might as well."

The mouse Pokemon sniffed around some of the hallways while visible avoiding other ones. He finally decided on one and let out a happy cry "Pipikapi!"

"See?" Red looked at Blue pridefully.

"Okay, okay. Let's go."

They took only a couple steps before Blue tripped. Red helped her up and they both noticed that the hallway they have chosen had tracks going through it. As they followed them, the walls got further and further, until they reached another room. The tracks went further to another opening, and the place was filled with broken pickaxes and helmets.

"This must have been a mine." The girl noted.

"Hey. Look at this!" Red yelled out in excitement.

As it turned out, the tracks split into two ways, with one of them ending in the room and a minecart in a fairly good condition being placed on them. There was a lever next to it which by Red's judgement would not only put the vehicle into motion, but also switch the tracks so that it could leave the room. He turned to Blue with a big smile on his face.

"Oh no. You aren't thinking abouwooah!" she was interrupted when Red grabbed her by the waist and quickly put her in the cart.

"No! Wait!" she yelled while trying to get out but was too late.

Red and Pikachu jumped inside, not leaving a lot of space and the boy pulled the lever. The minecart began moving, slowly but steadily. It still was too quick to the point where Blue wasn't sure if she would land safely after jumping out. After leaving the room, they began gaining on speed while going through a narrow hallway.

Soon, the tracks stopped being laid out on the ground, instead being held up by stilts. Blue made the mistake of looking down and got even more scared when she realized that she couldn't see the bottom of the cave because of how high they were. They must have been going about 60 kilometers per hour. Red held onto the front of the cart, while the other two grabbed onto him.

"Why are you grabbing me?!" Red yelled out in surprise after feeling Blue's touch.

"I'm scared! Whose fault do you think it is?!"

"Oh!"

"What "Oh!"?"

"The tracks are ending!"

"What do you mean the tracks are..." Blue said as she leaned to the side to see past Red.

She yelled out and incomprehensible exclamation when she saw that the tracks were in fact ending, and it seemed like they were doomed to fall to their deaths.

"What are wo gonna do?!" she started tearing up.

"Don't worry." Red said while turning to her with a calm smile "I'm sure we'll meet in heaven."

"You're going to hell!" those were her last words as the cart fell off the tracks.

Red managed to grab onto Pikachu and the trainers jumped to different sides while hoping for some way to save themselves.

* * *

There wasn't really much to this one so I'll try to be short. I wonder if Blue's mystery Pokemon is really a mystery to any of the readers. I mean, it's a mystery to Red but otherwise it should be painfully obvious.

What else? We finally learn something about the Viridian Gym. It's another thing that should be obvious but I gave it some more thought. You can look over Brock's words and find things that may be clues to some things that will happen in the future or have already happened in the past. Last thing is, I don't want anybody to take Red's attitude the wrong way. He's not as insane as he sometimes seems. That's it, folks.


	8. Chapter 8: Explorers of Darkness.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red and Blue are lost in the caves.

Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 8: Explorers of Darkness.

"Nooo. I can't eat any more beans. I don't even like beans."

Pikachu watched the sleeping face of his trainer, who somehow was able to talk in his dream, with a look of disappointment. He decided to forgive this unsightly behavior mostly because the boy covered him in his hands so that the electric Pokemon didn't take any damage from the fall. They still were fairly lucky, since instead of the bottom of the cave, they landed on a ledge extending from the wall a couple meters down. Nevertheless, Red hit himself in the head and has been unconscious for a couple hours and has suddenly began talking about various things he would eat for breakfast when he was still living with his parents.

Pikachu decided that it was time to wake the teenager up by using a small amount of his electricity. The boy opened his eyes and got himself up to a sitting position in a hurry as he let out an intelligible scream. After calming down, he looked around, while rubbing his eyes and covering the yawning coming from his mouth, to get an idea of where he currently was.

"Oh, Pikachu." he said after noticing the Pokemon who was sitting next to him "I'm glad that you're not hurt. Wait... Am I hurt?"

He reached to the back of his head with the right hand and then looked at it but there was no blood, so he decided to count himself lucky. He slowly stood up and walked towards the edge. He could see the tracks from which they fell but the bottom was still far away. They were too far from the other side to see if Blue also managed to land on some ledge.

The boy heard the voice of his Pokemon and when he turned around, he realized that there was a narrow opening in the wall behind them. He checked to see if he would fit inside and if the sides didn't have any sharp protrusions. After determining that he could safely pass, Red ordered Pikachu to walk in front and continue to provide a light source. After a couple minutes of walking, the ceiling of the corridor started to get lower and the boy had to hunch over and finally to start walking on his knees which proved to be tiring because he slid his legs against hard rocks.

"Pika!" the Pokemon spoke up and pointed towards them.

Red, who has stopped to rest and was caressing his aching knees, looked at what Pikachu was trying to show him and noticed that the tunnel seemed to end and there was some sort of light coming through from the outside.

"Let's check it, but be careful. This may lead us to the outside of Mount Moon and I don't feel like taking another fall."

They both were very surprised when they reached the end of the tunnel and what they save was an enormous room full of various minerals, many of which were giving off a bright light which made the entirety of the place completely visible. Additionally, it seemed like some parts of this place were sculpted with Red noticing rock stairs leading to the center of the room, where a group of Pokemon were loudly arguing over something.

The trainer picked up Pikachu and he slid down the small hill and landed right next to the group of Pokemon where he noticed that they were gathered around something akin to an altar with one of them laying on top of it. Red took out his Pokedex and learned that those were Clefairy, Pokemon who according to legends came from the Moon and started living in this mountain, so the place was named after the Moon.

Some of them backed off in fear but one stood up to Red and tried to punch him in the leg. He missed because the trainer passed him by to walk over to the altar. After looking at the one laying there, he came to the conclusion that it was poisoned by another Pokemon. He reached into his bag and, after rummaging a bit, took out a Pecha Berry and put it near the hurt Clefairy's mouth. At first, it didn't want to eat it, but seeing how the boy insisted and it was in too much pain to fight back, the Pokemon bit into the berry. Suddenly, it felt a wave of pleasant shivers come over its body and slowly got up while taking more bites of the berry, finally consuming it in its entirety.

The other ones observed this scene with amazement, but when the healed Clefairy let out a happy cry, they all answered in the same way, causing quite a lot of noise. They started jumping onto the altar to shake their friends hands. There were around 20 of them so they all didn't fit on there. The rest started gathering around Red and hugging his legs.

"It's okay. Calm down, calm down." he said since he felt a little awkward.

The Pokemon decided to give him space after the healed one seemingly ordered them to do it. The one that tried to oppose Red at the beginning ran up one set of stairs and reached into a small opening in a wall. He returned soon and pushed his way through the crowd. Red squatted to see what the Pokemon wanted. Clefairy put forward both of its hands, holding in them two peculiar stones covered in shining dust.

"I wonder if these are the Moon Stones that Team Rocket is after?" Red said to himself while examining the gifts.

"They are. So would you mind handing them over?"

Red looked around and stopped when he saw that two men dressed in Team Rocket outfits were walking down the stairs. The room had a couple different exits so they must have heard the ruckus made by celebrating Clefairies and walked in through one of them.

The one walking in front had a confident smile on his face while the other one was either very angry about something or very constipated, it was hard to tell. Red gave a quick look to Pikachu and snapped his fingers. Before the criminals could understand what was happening, the electric Pokemon used Quick Attack to deliver a blow to the belly of the smiling one, which sent him back up the stairs and crashing into the other one. Pikachu landed and waited for their reaction.

"Hey! Get off me!" the second man yelled.

When he realized that his companion passed out after being hit, he pushed him off himself, causing the body to roll down the stairs, probably hurting him even more than the Quick Attack. The angry man got up and tried to reach for a pokeball attached to his belt but a swift electric charge delivered to his hand by Pikachu, proved enough to make him abandon that idea. Instead, he chose to run away the same way he arrived in the chamber.

"We're going after him. He will lead us to the others." Red told Pikachu while running up the steps.

On the way, he passed the other one so he turned around to the group of Clefairies "Can you take care of him if he wakes up and tries anything?"

The one who was healed and the one who gave Red the Moon Stones both let out a confident shout, while the other ones just nodded.

. . .

A Team Rocket member with reddish-brown hair combed to the side in a stylish manner, wearing black rimmed glasses and a yellow muffler was sitting on a flat boulder and reading a pocket-sized book from a famous writer in Kalos region, filled with poetry about the nature and people. One of his underlings was standing above him with a flashlight since the light provided by shining minerals wasn't enough and the man didn't like to strain his already deteriorating eyesight.

6 other members he took with him on this escapade were resting in the same chamber, while 2 others seemed to wander off somewhere. He disliked that he would have to punish them, but he decided to always be strict with upholding his orders since he didn't want anybody to get an idea of taking his place as one of the Admins.

"Alex! Hey, Alex!" a yell rang out from somewhere.

The Admin closed the book while sighing at the stupidity of somebody showing this kind of impertinence, even though they all should have known what the consequences were. He slowly stood up while the underling beside him reluctantly turned off the flashlight. Soon, the man who escaped from his meeting with Red, arrived in the room while breathing heavily. The Admin gestured to another one, a woman, and she provided the arriving member with a bottle of water. He drank almost half of it and looked up at his boss who now walked over and was right in front of him.

"Alex, it's terri-" he started out but didn't have a chance to finish.

The Admin lifted his leg as high as the underlings head and kicked it from the side, causing the man to fall on the ground.

"We aren't on equal terms, you piece of trash. Don't ever call me by my name again."

The man turned over and touched his face, feeling that he lost 2 or 3 teeth thanks to that kick. A sign of tears appeared in his eyes, seeing how he was treated after what he just went through at the hands of Red, only to get punished after trying to deliver a warning to his teammates.

"Hey, Alex. Don't treat him so badly. It looks like the poor guy is about to piss his pants."

A vein popped up on the Admins forehead and he gritted his teeth as he looked around to see where that voice came from. Not seeing anyone owning up to these words, he finally yelled out "Who the hell said that?!"

"Pika!"

As Alex turned around, he barely noticed a yellow streak passing him. Pikachu hit one of the Team Rocket's members and ricocheted into another one, knocking them both out, before returning to the side of his trainer who just then appeared from one of the entrances to the room. The mouse used its tail to high five its trainer after jumping up far enough. Alex looked around, slowly realizing what has happened. He ventured out to Mount Moon with 9 underlings. Now, 2 of them were passed out, 1 was missing and 1 was crying on the floor.

"You seem to think you're some kind of badass for eliminating a couple of these guys. I don't know who you are and don't care. You are interrupting the assignment we got from boss so we will have to kick your ass. Not me, mind you. These guys will be enough." Alex said to Red.

The other members of Team Rocket understood what he meant and called out their Pokemon. Red was now faced with a group of 5 Koffings which floated around the chamber while smiling menacingly.

"Hey. 5 of these ugly balls against my Pikachu? That's not really fair."

"We are Team Rocket. We don't play fair." responded one of the members.

"Wow. Is everything you guys say a cliché?" Red said with a disappointed look "Anyway, I should tip the scales a little in my favor. Come on, my buddies!"

Red released the remaining two of his Pokemon from their pokeballs. Charmander immediately took a fighting stance, smiling, anticipating the start of the battle. Eevee, like he usually did, ran to his trainer to receive a pat on the head before the battle. One of the Team Rocket members swallowed saliva gathering in his mouth from fear of how calm their opponent seemed to be, even with the odds seemingly stacked against him.

"What are you waiting for?! Attack already!" yelled out Alex who in the meantime sat back down on the boulder he was on before.

One of the startled underlings looked back at their leader, then turned around an commanded "Koffing, use Smog!"

"You too!" the other four also ordered their Pokemon.

The group of Koffing gathered in a line and let out purple clouds filled with poison towards their opponent. The attacks combined into one, which covered almost half of the space between the walls, floor and ceiling, giving Red and his Pokemon scarce chance to avoid it. Unfortunately for them, the teenager had a different plan.

"Ember!"

Charmander, being the only one to whom that command could apply, stepped forward and shoot a barrage of fiery bullets into the thick, poisonous fog. The Team Rockets members standing on the other side, couldn't see what was happening at first, so they were waiting with anticipation for the attack to hit their Pokemon. Instead, as soon as the flaming balls touched the cloud of poison, they caused it to combust in a frighteningly quick way.

The flames headed towards the mouths of Koffings from which the cloud were still being emitted, and in a fraction of a second, caused a big explosion. Red managed to grab Charmander who was the closest to it of his teammates and jumped on the ground where he hoped that it wouldn't reach quickly rolled over, when a piece of rock fell from the ceiling near his head, to make sure that anything wouldn't hit him. After a couple seconds of loud noises and blinding light, the boy slowly got up and looked at the thinning smoke left after the explosion. After a while, the group of Koffing could be seen again, but this time, they were all laying fainted on the floor.

"My arm!" one of the Team Rockets member shrieked in pain since it seemed that a rocky shard sunk into his forearm.

When he saw Red, he looked up in anger and started moving towards him in a staggering manner, until he saw a hand blocking his way. Somehow, Somehow, Alex managed to move past everyone, who were either checking for injuries or still covering their heads while squirming on the ground.

"I'm impressed by your abilities, my boy." he said.

"What? How old are you exactly?" Red wondered.

"I... Don't interrupt me! Anyway... You managed to beat almost all of my underlings..."

"No, I beat them all. There was one more guy who I defeated a couple minutes ago."

"Oh. They you managed to beat all of them. Wonderful!"

"Wait... Why is it wonderful that I won?"

"Don't you get it? This is a golden opportunity! One that comes once in a lifetime! I always seek to raise the standard of our group, yet I have to deal with these bumbling buffoons. I don't know yet if you are a man of culture like myself, but I recognize your tactical wit and fighting abilities. If you joined Team Rocket, you would surely raise in ranks in no time. I would humbly say that I'm the second or third strongest person in the organization. With your strength, you could fit in right below me. So, how about it?"

"How about no?"

Alex looked at him with an empty expression of surprise "Let me get it clear. You are saying "no"?"

"Absolutely. It's nothing against you, but I just heard all this bad stuff about your group. And all this time you acted all high and mighty but I still haven't seen you do anything that would make me impressed."

Alex laughed out aloud, causing his underlings to back off. They knew that him acting in this way wouldn't lead to anything good.

"Of course! Of course! You would need to see my abilities before you recognized my authority! Then, how about we make a deal? If I win here, you will join Team Rocket, but if I lose, we will leave Mount Moon and never return here."

One of the underlings looked as if he wanted to get up and protest, but a quick glance from Alex, stopped the man in his tracks.

"I'll raise the stakes!" Red answered happily "If I ever lose to any Team Rocket goon, I will join you right away. But if I win, you have to tell me why are you guys guarding the Viridian City Gym!"

Alex took a step back, being in shock after hearing the teenagers demand. Their association with that place was one of the biggest secret about Team Rocket, yet somehow a part of it leaked out. After mentally reminding himself that he has nothing to worry about, since he was sure of winning the upcoming fight, Alex readjusted his glasses with the middle finger of his left hand and stretched both of his arms a little, before detaching from the belt the only pokeball he carried with him.

"I'll allow you to use all your Pokemon. You can use them all at the same time or one by one. Basically, do whatever you want."

"You seem pretty confident. Just don't cry about it when we beat you!" Red answered while stepping forward, with all three of his Pokemon lined up in front of him.

"Don't worry. I won't. Go!" Alex said as he threw the pokeball into air.

. . .

Somewhere else in the massive cave system, the Team Rocket member who was left alone in the room full of Clefairies after Pikachu attacked him, was running as fast as he could, since the group of pink Pokemon began throwing rocks at him as soon as he woke up. He didn't even know what direction he was running in.

At one point he stopped hearing the rocks being thrown at him so he looked back without stopping his legs and saw that he wasn't being chased anymore.

Suddenly, he noticed that what he was looking at has started turning upside down, and after hitting the ground, he realized that something lifted him up into the air and then threw him onto the floor of the cave. He got up, mouth full of dirt and angrily looked at who had done it to him. It turned out to be an Ivysaur.

"Huh? Where did this thing come from?" he said in astonishment.

"Are you alright?" a voice came from past the grass Pokemon.

The Team Rocket member saw who he assumed to be the trainer of Ivysaur. What he did not know was that it was Green, the same person who saved Red from a flock of Spearow on Route 1. The teenager reached out with his hand to help the man stand up.

"Next time look forward when running. You almost ran into me, so Ivysaur instinctively used its vines to protect me."

The criminal slapped the helping hand away, and got up by himself.

"I don't need your charity! Everybody is treating me like trash today! I'm gonna relieve my anger by kicking your ass!" he yelled while grabbing Green by the collar of his shirt.

Suddenly, he felt drowsy to the point of yawning. Slowly, he lost his strength and will to fight, let go of Green and collapsed to the floor again. It was the doing of Ivysaur who used Sleep Powder to protect his trainer.

"Good job. But this guy... It looks like he's a Team Rocket member. We should tie him up and at least call the police after leaving him in front of one of the entrances. I wonder if he's alone. Well, I would have to be a fool to search for a group of dangerous criminals in this massive mountain that I don't know my way around."

. . .

In another part of the cave system, a person fitting what Green described was beginning to regret his overconfidence, as Pikachu was sent flying past him and straight into a wall. It got up by propping itself up on its leg. One of its eyes was closed as it was trying to deal with the pain. After seeing that his Pokemon was still ready to fight, Red looked back to his opponent.

Alex was using what seemed to also be a Pikachu, but a second later changed shape to get ready for Charmander who was attempting to get it with Scratch. For a small time it was a violet blob, but it quickly became an exact copy of its foe, and blocked the attack with a Scratch of its own.

"Ember!" ordered Alex.

"Get back!" yelled Red.

Charmander belonging to the teenager wasn't fast enough, and was hit straight in the face, which sent him crashing down into the ground. Eevee attempted to use the situation, thinking that the opponent was distracted, but the copy lizard spun around, transformed into the dog and kicked with both of its leg, causing Eevee to hit the ground right next to Charmander.

"Now you see why I was so confident that I could beat all your Pokemon." Alex said, as his Pokemon changed back into its original form and using elasticity, jumped onto the criminals shoulder "Give up now. You'll join Team Rocket either way and at least your Pokemon will avoid getting beaten up any more. We may be known as villains but we care for our own."

"Then what about your underlings?"

"Oh, I care about them. I sometimes have to punish them if they act like cretins, which they usually do, but I don't necessarily take pleasure in it. Maybe expect for Roger. I hate that he showers once a week."

"But it's a waste of water!" spoke up one of the Team Rocket members.

"Shut up, Roger! Or I'm going to tell the cooks to not give you dessert for the next month!"

Roger swallowed saliva in fear, after which he saluted "Yes, sir!"

The Admin turned his attention back to Red "Now, where were we? Oh, yes. Have you decided to give up?"

"Far from it. In the time you were arguing, I came up with a sure win strategy."

"Really? I'd like to see it. I'll give you a couple seconds to at least get your plan into motion before Ditto stops you."

"You are very generous."

"You could say that's my second name." Alex answered sarcastically and chuckled a little.

After being surrounded by incompetent thugs or people who thought themselves to be better than him, it was nice to talk to somebody who showed promise, but not enough to ever get too big for their britches.

"Okay. Do you understand." Red stood up after explaining the strategy he came up with to all his Pokemon.

They looked a little unsure, but decided to execute the order anyway. Alex looked with curiosity as Eevee stepped forward and bent its legs to allow Pikachu to get on its back. Next, Charmander climbed onto the back of Pikachu. Finally, Eevee stood up slowly, as to not lose the balance. They all were on all four limbs and formed a bizarre tower where most of what Alex could see were their heads.

"What? What is this?" he asked in confusion.

"Your Ditto can't transform into all of them, at least not fast enough, if they are in this formation. I call this new strategy: Totemon!"

The Team Rocket members, including those who were beginning to regain their consciousness, started laughing uncontrollably.

"Here I was hoping that it was something clever... Ditto, attack the Eevee!"

The violet blob took on an aerodynamic shape as it flew through the air, but instantly assumed the dog Pokemon's form when it touched the floor. It proceeded to use Quick Attack, but Red had no reason to give any more orders, since he already prepared his team for this during the short briefing.

When the enemy approached them, the Pokemon jumped up in short intervals, starting with Charmander and ending with Eevee. The Foe stopped in astonishment when he realized that he didn't hit anything. It looked up to see its opponent falling down on it, intending to use Scratch, Tackle and Iron Tail respectively. It instinctively tried to cope with this situation by transforming into one of them, but it couldn't choose which one, changing its form several times during a short span of time, until it finally went back to its original appearance, at which point, all the attacks hit it, causing it to get splashed on the ground.

"It seems I won." Red said with a prideful look.

His Pokemon, after determining that their opponent fainted, even though his body returned to a more solid form after a couple seconds, all jumped up and performed a team high five.

"Come back, Ditto." Alex returned the Pokemon to its ball and looked at Red "I have to congratulate you."

"Oh. Thanks. I..."

"But! You said that you'll join Team Rocket if any our members beat you. We still have 3 Koffings left and your Pokemon are pretty worn out after our battle. Let's see how long you can last!"

The members of Team Rocket who were attacked before they could use their Pokemon previously, all called out their Koffings. They already received explanation as to why they shouldn't use Smog, so they were all smiling deviously, knowing that the odds were in their favor. Opting for a physical approach, all of them yelled out "Tackle!"

"Air Cutter!"

Before the poisonous orbs could do anything, a series of what seemed to be blades made out of air, came raining down from somewhere above, causing them all to get hurt and plummet to the ground. This caused everyone to look up to the ceiling, where they just then noticed an opening which must have led to another chamber, as the attacked was caused by a Zubat which flew through there.

Understanding what was happening, Red ran over to cover Alex's eyes. The Koffing owners were too busy trying to run from the Zubat, which tried to bite them, while the rest of criminals were on the far end of the room. This allowed Blue to jump down without worries, although she still held onto her skirt. Red looked back at her and they both exchanged a thumbs up gesture. Soon, he was standing by her side and the Zubat stopped his attack to fly besides his owner.

"Don't you wanted to take a peek?"

"As if, stupid. Is that your mystery Pokemon?"

"No, I caught Bat when I was searching for you. Although, seeing what the situation is, I guess it's time. Go, Bell and Tori!"

Blue threw two pokeballs into the air, releasing Bellsprout, but also a light blue Pokemon that Red hasn't seen before. He quickly used his Pokedex to learn that it was a Squirtle.

"So why were you keeping it a mystery?"

"Are you kidding me? Squirtles are pretty rare. I was lucky to get it from Professor Oak."

"What?!" Red jumped back in shock "That means you are the third trainer! Or, I guess you are the second since I'm the third."

"Anyway, that's not what's important right now. Team Rocket! You wanted a three on three battle, so let's make it fair! My three Pokemon against your Koffings!"

"No." Alex declared "That's enough. I don't want to come off as a sore loser. I'll uphold my end of the deal and we are gonna leave this place. I'm gonna call that one underling later and tell him that the mission is over. We lost. I know that you dislike clichés, boy, but the next time we meet, I'm gonna be the winner."

"Good luck with that. One last thing. I raised the stakes, remember? What is the deal with the Viridian Gym?"

"Well, I guess I may as well tell you. I don't really get why the boss still has someone guard that place. Maybe he's nostalgic?"

"Nostalgic?" Blue asked.

"Yes. Our boss was previously the leader of that Gym and the only reason he opened that place was to scout out new Team Rocket members. After finally gathering enough, he abandoned it. Well... not completely, it seems."

"Thanks for telling the truth." Red walked over and reached out his hand, but Alex shook his head to the sides in response.

"We can't become friends. Not yet. But... What is your name?"

"It's Red."

"Red. I'll remember you." after saying that he turned around to his underlings "Okay, you stinking piles of shit! We are getting out of here!"

"Yes, Mr Alex!"

* * *

The whole thing with Clefairy was meant to go in the previous chapter but I preferred to leave it on a "cliffhanger"(almost literally).

The part with Green was a completely new addition. He was going to appear soon anyway, so I just decided to show a little of his journey, since the story is really Red centric. When planning the stories I realized that too late, so I'm gonna try to put in more intermissions like that.

This chapter introduced the biggest number of Pokemon, while also showing the first Team Rocket Admin. Alex came off a little more immature than I intended him to be but he's still in the top three of the villains I have planned for this series so far. I know there was a reason I gave him that name but I'm not sure what it was.

By the way, the title comes from one of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games.


	9. Chapter 9: Nugget Bridge is Falling Down.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Green goes to visit a famous scientist while Red goes sightseeing.

Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 9: Nugget Bridge is Falling Down.

"It looks like I'm at the right place."

Green was looking up at the small house standing in front of him while holding a piece of paper which was a quickly drawn map he received from a person in the city, after he asked them how to get to this place.

Before beginning his journey, he learned a great deal about Pokemon from his grandpa, but Professor Oak assured him that there were many other people he could gain knowledge from. One of them was Bill, the brilliant teenager responsible for creating the Pokemon Storage System which has since been put into use all over the world. Unfortunately, he didn't think ahead and copyright his idea which according to Oak's estimation, would have made him one the richest people in the Kanto Pokemon League was still very grateful so they decided to build this house for him and fund any of his future research.

Since Bill didn't want to disturb anybody, he lived outside of Cerulean City and one had to go through the famous Nugget Bridge to get there. Green woke up as soon as he could but the walk to this place still took him a good couple hours. It was almost noon, and Bill couldn't have left the house and not pass Green on the way, so it was weird that he didn't answer the door.

As he pondered at whether to give up on meeting the scientist or wait some more, he heard a screech behind he turned around, he saw a tanned girl with pink hair braided into twin tails, in tight, orange shorts and with a sleeveless shirt in the same color which revealed her belly. She was getting off her bike while moving the glasses she was wearing up her head. She noticed the trainer after a couple seconds of making sure that her bike was stable.

"Oh? Are you a friend of Bill's?" she asked.

Green turned his head to the sides and answered "No. I had reasons to meet him but he didn't answer the door."

"That's weird. He was supposed to meet with me 2 hours ago but he didn't come so I was worried about him." she said while putting her hand on the door handle "It's open. Let's go in. Maybe he got sick, since he didn't even call."

"Wait. Are you sure we can go in?"

"Sure we can. I'm his girlfriend. By the way, my name is Laoettia. What about you?"

"I'm Green."

"With envy?" she asked while trying to stop her giggle.

"What?"

Apparently, the joke wasn't understood by the boy, so the girl just said "Don't worry about it."

Both of them went inside and were greeted by a complete mess. The floor was almost unseeable because of all the documents laying around. The house seemed to consist of only 2 rooms, although the one they were took up a lot of space and the ceiling was fairly high. The corner right to the entrance contained a kitchen with stacks of dirty plates and bags full of trash. To the left was a bed with a lamp and multiple towers of science fiction books next to it. In the middle of the room was a desk with a computer and several empty coffee mugs. Opposite side of the entrance, was a peculiar machine which consisted of 2 chambers and a big tube connecting them.

Green stood by the door, careful not to step on anything that could be important, but Laoettia didn't seem to mind and started looking around, making sure that Bill wasn't somewhere on the floor, sleeping in a pile of dirty laundry.

"I'll check the bathroom. You go look if he's not in that machine of his."

Green, still a little reluctant, traversed the room and approached one of the chambers. He grabbed the handle and opened it slowly. It was completely empty. There were some mechanisms on the walls but he still didn't understand what purpose the machine could serve.

He checked the other chamber and after opening it, saw a mysterious creature sleeping in it. It resembled a Jigglypuff but was less round, its eyes were smaller and it had wavy, brown hair. The trainer used Pokedex, but the device showed no results. For a second, Green thought that maybe Bill was involved in some experiment to create a new species of Pokemon.

"He wasn't in the bathroom." he heard Laoettia's voice behind him.

He stood up and turned to her "Do you know what that is?"

"Is that some kind of Pokemon? I know Bill had a couple of them but I never saw one like this. But it looks weirdly similar to him."

"What do you mean?" Green was puzzled by her statement.

"Its hair is similar to Bill's. It's face also reminds me of him."

Suddenly, the creature started moving. It got up to a sitting position and started rubbing its eyes while yawning. Without realizing that its being watched it said "Gee willikers, I didn't realize that a Jigglypuff needs so much sleep."

After hearing a thud, the being looked outside the chamber, realizing finally that the door was open, and saw that Laoettia fell on her bottom, clearly afraid of it.

"It spoke!" she screamed.

"Wait up! It's me!" the creature tried to calm her to no avail.

The girl quickly got up, ran outside and judging by the sound of it, drove away as fast as she could. The monster looked at the entrance to his house with shame. Green remained calm and went over what this could mean in his head. After reaching a conclusion, he squatted next to the creature.

"You are Bill, aren't you?"

It jumped back in surprise. With its gaze focused on Laoettia till now, it didn't notice the other person.

"And who are you?"

"My name is Green. I'm the grandson of Professor Oak."

"Oh! I heard about you. But wait... Before we talk, can you return me to my original form?"

"So I guessed right. You wanted to use this machine to transport a Jigglypuff but somewhat you got stuck inside and the process began, somehow fusing you with the Pokemon."

"As expected of Professor Oak's grandson!"

After a couple whiles, Bill and Jigglypuff got separated. The scientist had to get new clothes and was finally ready to talk with the trainer.

"Thanks for helping me."

"No problem. But... What is the purpose of this machine? You already developed the Pokemon Storage System."

"Yes, I did. But it works only when the Pokemon are enveloped by the field generated inside pokeballs. Thanks to this machine, any Pokemon, any being really, could move location in an instant. Imagine that this machine is placed in every Pokemon Center in the world. Not only will people be able to travel far away in a second, it will also make me rich. I won't make the same mistake again."

"I see. What about your girlfriend?"

Bill got pale from embarrassment "I... It's the third girlfriend I lost this month."

"What?"

"Yeah. A lot of girls start dating me because they expect that I will become rich, but none of them can put up with my lifestyle. I never managed to get a second date. I try to not let that get to me. It doesn't work. I'm immensely sad and lonely. But it's not your fault."

Green was at a loss for words.

"But I have to say that I'm sorry. As you see, I have some things to work out before I can begin making money off this thing so I can't have you staying here and getting in the way of my work."

"I'm sorry?"

"But! You helped me, so I want to show you my gratitude. You can have this and this." when saying that, he held out both of his hands, one with a pokeball, the other with what seemed to be 2 tickets for a cruise.

"A Pokemon?"

"Yes. It would be weird having Jigglypuff here after going through that experience."

"And the tickets?"

"Have you heard about St. Anne? It's a luxury ship that's gonna arrive in Vermillion City in about 2 weeks. They are gonna have a charity auction there. The League officials sent me these tickets and I planned to go there with my girlfriend, but since I don't have a girlfriend anymore..." when talking about this, Bill slowly got sadder, till he laid on the floor with waterfalls of tears pouring out of his eyes.

"Oookay. It was nice to meet you. I have to go now." said Green, before leaving in a hurry.

When the doors closed behind him, he let out a sigh of relief and proceeded to walk back to Cerulean City.

. . .

"Ceruleaaaaan Cityyyyy!" Red shouted out with a big smile on his face and both of his hands lifted up to the sky.

"Why are you yelling?" Blue gave him a look of disapproval while covering her ears.

"I'm excited! I'm pumped! I'm ready to fight!"

"Who are you going to fight?"

"The Gym leader, of course. Who else?"

"It seems you didn't do your research. The Gym leader of Cerulean City is a lot more busy than Brock since this place is closer to the center of Kanto so you can't just expect to get in without making a reservation."

Red dropped both of his hands and looked at Blue with a shocked face "Then what am I gonna do?"

"Don't worry. Let Blue handle everything. I'm going to get reservations for both of us. In the meanwhile, you can go check out Nugget Bridge."

"A what now?"

"Nugget Bridge. I read that it's a place where the trainers from the city gather to have Pokemon fights."

"Where did you read that?"

"On this sign."

Red looked past Blue and to the thing she was pointing at. It was a map of the City which mentioned various places that people might find interesting.

"Okay! Wish me luck!" he said while running away.

She waited a couple seconds before yelling "The other way!"

. . .

Somewhere else, Alex walked, through automatic doors, into a dark room, lit up only by a couple red balls embedded in the floor. There were three desks in the room, each with a comfortable swivel chair behind it. 2 of them were already taken so he sat in the one closest to the entrance, without saying anything.

Since there was still a little time before what they arrived for would happen, he closed his eyes to relax. His fight with Red was still fresh in his mind and the thought of making that teenager a Team Rocket member didn't leave him for a moment.

"We heard about your loss." a female voice declared.

Annoyed, Alex opened his eyes and looked to the right. Behind the middle desk sat a female Team Rocket member, a couple years younger than Alex. She wore the standard uniform used by all the female members, had dark hair arranged in a nice looking bob cut, and would be by most standards considered to be fairly attractive, even though she didn't wear any make-up, since the Team Rocket rules didn't require it and she was the most devoted of all members, to the point where she wouldn't do anything that didn't in some way serve Team Rocket.

If she were to be honest with herself, her hair would definitely be longer and she would probably use make-up, but the first one could get in her way during fights and the second was a waste of money. Her name was Angie, and although Alex didn't put in as much effort as her, he still produced results good enough to become an admin so he got irritated whenever she acted like if she wanted to tell him that she was better.

"You call that a loss, but I call this an investment in the future. You haven't met the trainer I fought. He is the most promising person I ever met. If I was you, I would be careful. If I get him to join Team Rocket, he will take your place in no time." after responding, Alex smiled, confident that his remark would anger Angie.

If the girl wanted to say something, she didn't get the chance.

The third person in the room was Peter, a pale man with long, dark hair and big bags under his eyes. His uniform couldn't be seen beneath the long, grey cape which surrounded his body and which allowed him to wear a hood, even though there was no reason to.

He put down the small carton of orange juice from which he had been drinking through a straw and said "If I were to have my way, you would be hung up naked and lashed for 24 hours for your incompetence. Then I would say that your punishment is over, only to slice open your belly and letting you die."

Alex backed off a little while nervously swallowing saliva.

"That's not in the rules." stated Angie.

They all turned their attention to the screen placed on the wall in front of them, which had just turned on. To Alex's relief and to Angie's disappointment, the one addressing them wasn't their boss. It was one of the scientist who was working on the biggest project Team Rocket was involved in. It has been going on for a couple of years and completing it was their main goal. The admins weren't directly involved in it but they still received regular updates.

"I welcome you all." the man said while bowing his head "I have great news. Codename M2 should be finished in 3 day's time."

Angie contained her excitement, but was screaming from happiness on the inside. Peter's eyes opened wide with shock, after which he gave a slow clap. Alex shouted out "Yes!" while hitting the table with the bottom of his fist.

"Wait up. I was ordered to tell you not to get too excited. Even after it's done, there will be many tests we will have to conduct before it is ready to be used. You are to proceed with carrying out any missions you have been assigned or came up with by yourself and not worry about this whole thing. And nobody who isn't an admin can learn about it. Is that understood?"

Angie stood up and answered "Yes, sir!" while saluting.

Alex also saluted, although without saying anything. Meanwhile, Peter just gave the scientist a thumbs up gesture, much to Angie's chagrin.

"Then, till we can talk again. Farewell." the man said with a smile, and the screen went black.

. . .

Charmander stood his ground while being hit by a small wave of air. It pushed him back a little but didn't hurt him too much. He was ready to counterattack.

"Finish it with Ember!" Red ordered.

The lizard shot out the attack from his mouth and the enemy Pidgey wasn't fast enough to avoid it. The bird fainted and its trainer, a boy couple years younger than Red, returned it to its pokeball. It looked like he was about to begin crying because of his loss, so the teenager reached out with his hand. The opponent did the same with hesitation.

"It was a good fight." said Red "I'm sure that you will become a great trainer. You need to train every day and take good care of your Pidgey. But before that, you should go to heal it up in the Pokemon Center."

The boy nodded and ran towards the city. Red looked at him for a while, until he heard a voice saying "That was a nice fight."

When he turned around, he saw Green sitting on the railing of the bridge, with Ivysaur standing close to him. The trainer from Pallet Town had one of his legs held up by the other and one his hands keeping his head up while itself being place on the knee that was higher in the air. There was a slight hint of a smile on his face. Red analyzed that picture for a short while before saying "Um, who are you?"

Green's hand slipped and he almost fell from surprise.

"It's me! It's Green!"

"Oh, Green! Now I remember. The third color."

"I have literally no idea what you are talking about."

"Doesn't matter. What matters is this guy!" Red announced while pointing at Ivysaur "Your Bulbasaur evolved."

"Oh. Yes, he did." Green said while jumping off the railing.

He went up to Charmander and kneeled down to look at it closer "I see that you managed to tame this one."

"There was no need to tame him. Charmander is a natural fighter. He just needed somebody to give him a target. He helped me win many fights. But also, look at this." after saying that, Red showed him the badge he got from Brock.

"You want to brag?" Green responded while opening his badge case, which apart from the Boulder Badge, contained the Cascade Badge.

"Well..." Red tried to find a good argument as to not feel inferior to Green "...Badges aren't everything. You could win a Gym battle and then lose to a random person."

"I guess. Want to check that out?"

"You think I'm a random person?"

"Not necessarily, but it's only the second time we met. We are at least one meeting away from becoming acquaintances."

"But you want to fight against me?"

"Yes." Green answered while holding up a pokeball in front of his face.

"What about Ivysaur? I thought it would be fun if we both used the Pokemon we got from Professor Oak."

"I've already had him fight a couple people today so he's a little exhausted. Your Charmander too."

Red looked at his Pokemon. Although the lizard took a fighting stance, the trainer could see that his breathing was irregular and there was sweat dripping from his forehead.

"You're right. Come back, buddy." he returned it to its pokeball.

"Besides, I have this new Pokemon and I wanted to test its strength. Go forth, Jigglypuff!"

The pink Pokemon appeared from the flash of light while rolling but it's eyes were closed. After rotating a couple times, it stopped upside down. He woke up, probably because of the blood flowing to its brain and struggled a little to get on its legs, after which it took a serious pose, pretending like the whole thing didn't just happen.

"Is he... Is he alright?" Red asked, being a little embarrassed for Green.

Green blushed a little and responded "It's fine! Don't make us wait!"

"I choose Eevee!"

After being released from its pokeball, the dog was the opposite of Jigglypuff. It landed gracefully, let out a growl to intimidate its opponent and showed off with a nimble backflip. As usual, Red had to pat it on the head before the Pokemon was prepared to fight.

"Are you ready?" Red asked.

"Always." Green responded with a slight smile.

"Quick Attack!"

Eevee run towards it's opponent before Jigglypuff could tell what has happening. As it was hit, it filled its mouth with air, causing it to float up till it was over the rail. The balloon Pokemon landed and looked down on the dog while making an inviting gesture. Eevee wasn't so easily provoked, so instead of directly attacking, it also got up on the railing.

"Quick Attack again!"

"Disable!"

Right before it was about to be hit, Jigglypuff jumped up and a flash of light appeared in its eye. It landed back on the bridge. Eevee stopped and also got down.

"Since a normal Quick Attack doesn't work, we will have to use "that". Quick Attack Version B! Mirror Room!"

To Red's shock, instead of executing the order, his Pokemon looked at him with helplessness in its eyes. Green wasn't so kind as to let them figure out what was happening and commanded "Double Slap!"

The pink Pokemon approached the opponent and began a series of attacks with both of its open hands. Despite the name of the move, it hit the foe 4 times before it stopped and jumped back to a presumably safe distance.

"What was that?!" Red yelled.

He sounded more angry than he wanted to, but couldn't help himself, since this was the first time their signature move was completely stopped before it could even begin.

"Disable allows a Pokemon to block their opponent from using the last move they used before they were affected by it. Even if you came up with a different way of using Quick Attack, it's still essentially the same move. You won't be able to use it for some time. Huh... And here I thought you would give me a good battle."

Red closed his eyes and breathed in to calm himself. He knew that Green wanted to drag him into his pace, but he could still think clear enough to not allow him that.

"We have different ways to beat you." Red said while masterfully feigning confidence.

Besides Quick Attack being unusable, the environment didn't allow for a Sand Attack, limiting his options even more.

"Tackle!"

The attack didn't reach its target. Jigglypuff was already fast enough to avoid a Quick Attack, so Eevee using Tackle seemed to him almost like its opponent was moving in slow motion. It sidestepped with ease and, after receiving the command to use Disarming Voice, let out a shout which created a pink heart shape in the air. This creation hit Eevee, causing him damage, and pushing him away from Jigglypuff.

"Hit him with another Double Slap!"

As Jigglypuff was approaching Eevee, Red clenched both of his fist while looking down, ashamed that there was nothing he could think of to win this fight. He always relied on Eevee's speed so when it was taken away, he felt like a fool for not thinking about alternative ways to achieve victory. His mind was going through multiple thoughts at the same time. Some of it, was trying to come up with a way to win, some was a misguided anger at Green for revealing this weakness to him and some was the feeling of wanting to use quickness in some way.

"Quick Attack... quick... fast... swift..." he said quietly while frantically checking the Pokedex for some clues on how to win.

As he said the name of the disabled attack, information about it appeared on screen. What caught his attention was that the text suddenly changed. It displayed the information of a move called Swift. Seeing as Eevee was a Normal type Pokemon, Red never considered that it could learn an attack that wasn't physical in nature. He looked up with his spirits reignited at the moment Eevee was about to be hit and yelled "Jump!"

Green and Jigglypuff were equally surprised by this. Eevee landed again on the rail. When it saw that Red has regained his confidence, it let out a happy shout. The trainer from Pallet Town was carefully analyzing what his foe could have wanted to do, since he thought the victory was as good as his.

"We won't be needing Tackle to win this fight! Eevee, use Swift!"

Green got scared for a second but breathed out with relief when he saw that the dog was confused by the order. He never used that attack before so it wasn't surprising that he didn't know what to do.

Red scratched his chin, thinking for a couple seconds on how to explain what he wanted before saying "It's like stars which you shoot and they are really fast. I guess the name "Fast Stars" would be better for it... or... Speed Star? That has a nice ring to it."

After hearing about what the move was supposed to be, Eevee gathered energy in his body and opened its mouth to shoot out several starlike projectiles.

"Dodge!" Green commanded.

Jigglypuff used its round shape to roll out of the way, but when he stopped, thinking that he managed to avoid getting hurt, he saw that the stars followed him. Without having to be ordered, he tried to jump out of the way but it turned out to be pointless. Wherever he moved to, he was followed by the attack. And while he was getting tired, the stars were constantly gaining on speed. Finally, he was backed up against the rails and was hit in the face. He yelled out in pain.

"Another one!"

Before Jigglypuff could get up, Eevee jumped towards it and shoot out another Swift. This one was from a much closer distance, so there was no time to even try to get out of the way. After the opponent got hit a second time, the dog landed and started observing it intensely to see if the fight was over. Jigglypuff, fueled by its anger, got up too quickly for Eevee to open its mouth and began trying to use Double Slap. The attack was barely grazing the dog as it swayed to the sides. It did a backflip to gain some distance and suddenly a weird but somehow comforting feeling came over its body. It shouted happily in the direction of its trainer. Both of the teenagers realized what it meant, but Red was quicker to react.

"Quick Attack!"

Eevee ran into Jigglypuff, knocking it a little upwards.

"Mirror Room!"

The dog accelerated like if it was shifting into a higher gear and began attacking from every direction without letting the pink Pokemon hit the bridge. As the circle it was attack in got tighter, its opponent was sent flying upwards.

"Swift!"

Jigglypuff was already 5 meter above the bridge, but after being hit, he flew 2 times as high. Green was sure that even if he didn't already faint, he would if he hit the bridge, so he recalled him back to the pokeball. Eevee looked at him in surprise, but when Red ran over to hug him, he realized what happened. He won and it was the time to celebrate. He growled happily while being patted on the head. Finally, he also went back into his pokeball. Red stood up and faced Green.

"How was that?" he asked with a smug grin.

Green remained calm and answered "I would be very disappointed if you couldn't beat a Pokemon I just got with one you had for a long time."

Red was disappointed by Green's composure when faced with defeat.

"You weren't looking so hot for a second there." Green added.

"I will... You..." Red was too irritated to come up with a good comeback.

Green started walking away towards Cerulean City.

"I said that we won't be acquaintances until we meet a third time. I'm looking forward to that. But even now... you are definitely not a random person. I will... consider you... my rival." after finishing these words, Green sped up his walk.

When he realized that his new rival was just too embarrassed to say that face to face, Red started laughing out loud, not at Green, but from happiness.

* * *

It's me, your friendly neighborhood good-for-nothing. Back with another chapter.

This one had a lot of stuff added. Everything with Bill and Team Rocket wasn't originally planned but after the last chapter having that short bit with Green I wanted to add more of him in this one. Besides, since in my plans Green gets most of his Pokemon "off-screen", it was nice to have him get Jigglypuff with it, instead of just showing up with it.

The same goes for the tickets for St. Anne (I'm somehow used to using that name instead of S. S. Anne). They will of course be important later so it was a good course of things to not have them appear out of nowhere.

When it comes to Jigglypuff, I had a stupid reason for having Green get this Pokemon and decided to keep it, even if the reason was no longer valid because I think it's cool to have a rival with a Pokemon that just seems unrival-like.

It was also a good idea to introduce the other Team Rockets admins earlier, since originally they were supposed to appear one by one and they wouldn't have a lot of interactions. After having Alex act like an asshole, it was my point to make the reader realize that he's the most normal one out of the three of them. Overall, there is a lot of foreshadowing in this chapter, but if you didn't pick some of it up, you don't have to worry because it won't really become apparent until later on.

Since everybody loves statistics(maybe it's just me) I decided to do a little thing I'll place at the end of every chapter which will keep you up with the Pokemon and badges owned by the 6 most important characters. The ? indicates a Pokemon a trainer has in his possesion which hasn't been shown yet. I don't know if you would count that a spoiler, but besides that, there will be nothing else. So, if a Pokemon evolves between chapters it won't be listed here until it appears in the story.

Red. Team: Eevee, Charmander, Pikachu.

Badges: 1

Green. Team: Ivysaur, ?, Jigglypuff.

Badges: 2

Blue. Team: Bellsprout, Squirtle, Zubat.

Badges: 1

Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.

Angie. Team: ?, ?.

Peter. Team: ?, ?, ?.


	10. Chapter 10: My Conquest is a Pool of Stars.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red fights against Misty.

Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 10: My Conquest is a Pool of Stars.

After another 2 fights on Nugget Bridge, Red still hasn't lost, but his Pokemon were too worn out to continue, so he decided to visit the Pokemon Center, expecting to meet there Blue.

Although there were many people residing in the lobby, his travelling companion wasn't one of them. He left the Pokemon with the nurse, so she could heal them, while he wondered for a couple seconds what to do with himself, since he didn't have anyone to talk with.

On the way to the cafeteria he passed by the communication machines and remembered something important. He searched his pockets for a phone number and used the device to call the Pewter City Pokemon Gym. Soon, the receptionist who Red met when visiting that place, answered the phone and his face appeared on the screen. He immediately recognized the teenager and told him to wait a little while he would contact Brock. Soon, the receptionist left the seat and, from what Red heard, the room. Instead, the Gym leader arrived in his place.

"Hi, Brock."

"Hello, Red. Since you are calling me, you are probably wondering if I found out anything about Team Rocket?"

"Well..." Red hesitated, since he was previously ordered not to get involved with the criminals "That's half true. I also learned something about them."

Brock gave him a suspicious look "What do you mean?"

"I accidentally ran into them in Mt. Moon..."

"And by that, he means he search for them to get a confrontation." these words came from Blue who suddenly appeared behind Red, startling him enough to jump a little in the seat.

Brock squeezed the upper part of his nose and remained silent for a couple seconds before saying "Ok. I should have known I couldn't have stopped you. Not with that attitude you have. What did you learn?"

"I made a deal with them and since I beat most of them, the guy who was in charge of this group told me about their connection to the Gym in Viridian. That place used to serve them as scouting grounds for new members, since that mysterious Gym leader is also the boss of Team Rocket. But the guy seemed confused why somebody was protecting that place, since they abandoned it some time ago."

Brock tried to connect the dots in his head "That seems to line up with what I learned. I used my authority as a Gym leader to have the police check that place out. They met a couple Team Rocket members there, but since the policemen were more numerous, the Team Rocket members ran away. The only thing they found in the Gym were various documents. It's the only Gym I heard about that kept files on all the trainers who fought against the Gym leader. But this... This makes sense. He created the Gym to test potential Team Rocket members. I will have to contact the other Gym Leaders right away..."

"Wait!" Red yelled.

"What is it?"

"Could you wait like a day or two?"

"Why is that?"

"I want to fight the Cerulean City Gym leader and if you call her, she may become too busy."

"I'm sorry Red, but you know that this could be very important. I can't give you that much time."

"You don't have to." Blue said.

Red looked at her with a confused look "What do you mean?"

She held out her hand, and in it was the same badge that he earlier saw in Green's possession.

"I lied about the reservations so I could get this before you. Sorry."

"Gah!" Red fell from the chair in shock.

"But that means that you can go fight her right away." the girl tried to calm him.

Red quickly got up and looked at Brock "How about it? Give me just an hour or 2."

"Okay. I can do that." the leader answered "Good luck with your fight."

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

Red arrived at the nurse's counter after hearing that his Pokemon have been healed and immediately started to walk towards the doors, but when Blue didn't follow him, he turned around in surprise.

"Are you not coming?"

"I have to heal my Pokemon. Besides, I'm rather tired by the fight. You go on your own. We'll meet here later."

"Hmm... Okay. See ya."

. . .

The Cerulean City Pokemon Gym had a blue roof and was located in the middle of a big park. It was elevated a little and Red had to walk up a couple steps to get to the doors. On both sides of the stairs, there were 3 small fountains. This made the boy wonder if each Gym leader was in charge of the placement of their Gym and how it looked from the outside.

As soon as he entered, he recognized that he was in a lobby very similar to the one in Pewter City's Gym. The difference was that this room also had a small fountain, and that the receptionist was a young woman in a sleeveless shirt, and with her hair in a ponytail. She was chewing gum and seemed occupied with something on her computer. She gave Red a quick glance but didn't say anything.

"I'm here to challenge the Gym leader."

The woman remained silent for a long while, still chewing her gum, inflating it to the point that it popped and then chewing eat again. She was holding up her head with one hand while using the other to move and click the mouse rapidly. After some time she stopped with a disappointed look.

"Uh... I'm here to challen..."

"I heard you! Damn it, I lost my game! What do you want from me?! She's in there! Just go in!"

"Okay, okay." Red held up his hands, showing that he meant no harm as he slowly walked backwards towards the doors leading to the next room.

Unlike the Pewter City Gym, there was no corridor so after passing through the automatic doors, he arrived in the place where the battles were supposed to happen. The room seemed bigger than the one at Brock's Gym. There were two platforms for the trainers on the opposing ends, while most of the space was taken up by a big pool. There were 5 platforms floating on top of the water.

Red looked up and saw that although there were no balcony's for spectators, the Gym had roof windows which allowed sunlight to get in. It was bright enough that no artificial lights were needed.

Red arrived on his platform and began thinking about what tactic to use, since he assumed that the Gym leader would be a water type user. Suddenly, something moved in the water. Red didn't notice it before since it was below one of the platforms. It swam in his direction with incredible speed. He jumped back and fell on his buttocks when the thing reached out from the water in his direction.

He was amazed to find out that it was a human hand, which helped the rest of the body get out of the pool after grabbing onto the platform. It was a girl with a slender build and around his age, wearing a navy bikini bottom and top which was like band wrapping around hear breasts and holding them in place. Red's face turned red as he instantly stood up and started backing off.

"I'm sorry! I arrived at the wrong time! I'm gonna go now!" he said as he turned towards the doors.

"No, wait!" the girl stopped him and grabbed onto his hand "It's okay. This is a Gym, but it's also my private pool so when I don't fight I like to relax here. That means that I'm often in my swimsuit. But that won't stop me from taking on your challenge. That's why you came here, right?"

"Uh... Yeah."

"My name is Misty. What about you?"

"I'm Red."

"I can see that, but what's your name?"

"No. I..." Red managed to escape her grasp and turned around, realizing that her comment was about his blushing face "...My name is Red."

"Oh. That's interesting. I fought two other trainers who were also named after colors, yesterday and today."

"That's..." he wanted to explain that he knew them but decided that he would just be wasting the time that Brock gave him "...Yeah. Interesting. So, what is the battle gonna be like?"

"How many badges do you have?"

"One."

"The I will be using 2 Pokemon in this battle. And you..."

"I will also be using 2."

She blinked a couple times in surprise "Huh. That Green guy said the same thing. Although he needed only 1 in the end... Okay, let's get to our platforms."

After arriving at their respective spots, Red grabbed onto one of his pokeballs, after deciding what order he would use for this battle.

"Go, Eevee!" as he threw the ball, he made sure that it would hit one of the 5 platforms.

The Pokemon wanted to run to its trainer to be patted on the head but stopped immediately after realizing he was surrounded by water. He guessed that he could make the jumps between platforms but didn't want to risk falling into the pool before the battle even begun.

"I have to warn you. Your Pokemon is already in a losing position." the leader declared.

Red thought that she was just trying to provoke him, but when she didn't call out her own Pokemon for quite some time, he began to feel that something wasn't right.

Suddenly, his worries turned out to be justified, as from under the surface of the water, shot out something that looked like a star. Before Red or his Pokemon could understand what was happening, Eevee was hit in the face and knocked upwards, while the starlike entity continued spinning while flying through the room before going back underwater, without giving Red a chance to get a good look at it.

Fortunately, Eevee landed on all fours on one of the other platforms. Red quickly pulled out the Pokedex to see that the thing they were facing up against was a Staryu.

As Red had guessed, it was a water type. The thing that amazed him was the blinding speed of the Pokemon. It clearly outclassed Eevee's, and since the speed was the dog's strongest attribute, Red was worried about what would happen if he fell in the water, since that would make him even slower.

Eevee looked back at its trainer and saw the hand gesture that meant that he had to wait patiently while observing his surroundings. Staryu attacked again. It appeared out of Eevee's blind spot and hit him in the back of the head. The dog tried to stop himself from flying off the platform but as it began to tip, he had to jump to another one to avoid falling in the water. The one he was on previously was splashed backwards and hit the edge of the pool. It was too far from the other ones to ever get back on it again.

A normal trainer would have seen it as losing 20 percent of their field but Red was thinking about how this could be to his advantage. He observed the surface of the water when Staryu attacked the third time and Eevee had to jump to yet another platform, and he realized that thanks to the platforms being more spaced out, he could notice hints of Staryu's movements below the surface. When the fourth attack was about to happen, the trainer yelled out "Swift to the left!"

Misty stepped back in shock when she saw that Staryu's attack was stopped by a group of smaller stars hitting him one after another. The water Pokemon was knocked back into the pool and the leader started thinking of another way to continue attacking, since the usual one wouldn't work anymore.

"Water Pulse!"

Staryu began shooting out pulses of energy which created ripples on the surface of the water. The attack reached the platform Eevee was on. Although at first Red was happy that the other ones were knocked away, they would have come in really handy in that moment.

Eevee had nowhere to escape, so when he and the platform he was standing on were sent into the air, he couldn't land anywhere else than in the water. This put right in Staryu's domain. The dog tried to escape by swimming up but when another Water Pulse hit him, he began spinning uncontrollably and finally hit the wall of the pool on Misty's side of the room.

"Rapid Spin!"

Staryu started approaching Eevee with astonishing speed. Red was unable to come up with any order that would save the dog from the oncoming attack, so his Pokemon had to rely on its instincts and after waiting for the right moment, bit in Staryu's direction, managing to sink its teeth in one of the arms of the starlike Pokemon.

Apart from spinning, Staryu didn't have a big range of motions, so what it decided to do, after being stopped in its tracks, was to spin in the other direction. Eevee was dragged under the water, hitting the floor of the pool several times as Staryu made an arch which ended with both of them emerging from water and Eevee being sent flying.

"Swift!"

The dog opened its eyes, which showed that he was on his last reserves of energy and shoot out a barrage of stars which hit the Staryu with such a force that they sent him into the floor of the pool. Eevee came up with an unique idea to use Quick Attack while touching the water and managed to take 2 steps before crashing into one of the platforms and grabbing onto it as to not fall off again.

Something began forming in Red's head. The sight of Eevee saving himself in this way could lead to a new strategy. But it was too late. Staryu quickly recuperated and after receiving a command from Misty, used Tackle to knock over the platform the dog Pokemon was on. It used Rapid Spin again, this time making sure that Eevee would be sent in Red's direction. The normal Pokemon landed right in its trainer's hands, already unconscious.

"You did well, buddy." Red praised his Pokemon even though the dog couldn't hear it.

Staryu shot out of the water and, after taking a trip through the room, landed next to Misty. She patted the Pokemon on the back to congratulate him, then looked at Red with a confident smile "Are you sure you don't want to use more than 2 Pokemon? Many people think that if they just use a grass type, or something fast or strong, they can win easily. But the rules of water battles are completely different. This pool is our territory. Our rule is absolute. That Green guy was rather smart and the Blue girl took on us by using a water Pokemon of her own. I wonder if you have anything up your sleeve."

Misty couldn't have known that her words helped Red figure out what was missing from his tactic. As the plan formed in his head, he was staring forward with a cocky smirk. The girl backed off, creeped out a little. She even began to blush, thinking that Red wanted to intimidate her by staring at her body, but he was thinking about an altogether another female body.

. . .

About 2 weeks earlier, Red and Blue stopped on their way to because the girl complained about being tired. They were fortunate enough to be close to one of the resting spots for trainers. As Red reached into his backpack to get out some berries, he noticed with the corner of his eye that Blue was adjusting her socks. Since they were tight at the end, and loose in the middle, that meant that she could pull them up higher, all the way up to her knees.

"Maybe I should buy thigh high ones..." she muttered with a worried voice.

"What are you talking about?"

"These socks! My Zettai ryōiki range in these is from grade E to C. I think I would look better with B or even A. You would also probably prefer that."

"Zet-wha? Grades? I have no idea what you're talking about." Red answered with a very confused face.

"Look at this." she said while moving her hand over the parts of her legs not covered by clothes "This is Zettai ryōiki. It means "absolute territory". It's the space between socks and a skirt. It's the pathway to a promised land that every man wants to walk on."

"I... I'm not sure I follow. What about the grades?"

"The grades depend on how much of this space exists. The longer the socks, the higher the grade. Of course people have different preferences but I feel like more often than not, they prefer longer socks and a smaller Zettai ryōiki. Especially males." after the last words, she gave him a piercing stare.

"That's... That's absurd! You think you can influence someone with something like the length of your socks?!" Red protested.

"Let's put it to the test then." she said with a confident smile, while pulling her socks down to their usual length "Can I have a berry?"

"Uh... Sure. I don't know what's that gonna prove..." he said while placing one of the berries on the bench she was sitting on.

"Okay. Now..." Blue pulled up the socks to her knees while giving Red a quick look.

He felt something cold run through his spine, but something hot swirling in his chest, while his belly felt like an electrifying hurricane, all at the same time.

"...Can I have a berry?"

"How... How many?" Red said unconsciously, mesmerized by what was presented to him.

In a short moment he came to his senses and looked at Blue with a terrified face.

"You see? Absolute territory is a dangerous weapon, yet it can be controlled. The smaller the territory, the bigger your advantage. Although, I don't think this would ever be useful to a guy... Unless you wanna try wearing my clothes?"

"I don't!" he yelled with his face red like a tomato.

. . .

"The smaller the territory, the bigger my advantage" Red said to himself.

Misty looked at him with concern since he was quiet for almost a minute.

"What's the ruling on giving our Pokemon berries during the fight?" the boy asked.

"Uh... Any berry that doesn't restore Pokemon's strength is fine. But, you didn't call out your second Pokemon yet. Is it already poisoned or something? Or is it just hungry? I don't..."

"And is there a limit to how many I can use?"

"I... I guess no."

"Okay. That's what I needed to know. Now, it's your time, Pikachu!"

The electric Pokemon appeared on the only platform that was still kind of in the center of the pool.

"And now..." Red took on a stance similar to a baseball pitcher "...it's time to raise the grade!"

Red threw one of his berries into the pool, close to Misty. The girl looked at it with confusion, while the boy continued to throw even more berries. Finally, around 30 of them were scattered all around the pool.

"I don't understand what you are trying to do but that won't stop me. Rapid Spin!"

"Quick Attack!"

As soon as Red gave his command, Misty realized what his plan was. It was something she couldn't have ever come up with since it was a tactic not suitable for water Pokemon. Pikachu used the berries as stepping stones during his run. He touched them for such a short time, that they were barely affected by his weight, but still were necessary to allow him to approach the enemy. Pikachu adjusted his path as to not hit Staryu head-on.

"Iron Tail!"

As the mouse was passing its opponent, his tail turned to steel and he delivered a crushing blow. Adding Staryu's speed, caused the attack to be even more effective, and the water Pokemon was knocked straight up. Misty called it back right before it would crush into the roof windows.

"What the hell was that?!" she yelled.

"Well... I made sure that everything I did was according to the rules."

"That's not what I mean! If you have a Pikachu, why didn't you order it to use an electric attack?!"

"Oh... You were just going on about how this is your territory and your rule was absolute. Let's just say I wanted to show you that I could "absolutely" conquer it." he said with a smile, that just led the leader to anger.

"I see..." she gritted her teeth "...Since you won't be using electric attacks and I already know about your tactic, I can leave everything to this one. Go, my steady!"

From Misty's pokeball emerged a Pokemon similar to Staryu, but purple, bigger and with more arms. Red checked the Pokedex to learn that it was a Starmie. The Pokemon jumped into the water, after being commanded. This way, Pikachu couldn't use Quick Attack to reach it.

"But... Since I already conquered your territory, I don't need to prove anything more. Pikachu, use Thunder Shock!"

Before Misty could do anything, the attack was already happening. After electricity reached the water, there was nowhere for Starmie to escape. Pikachu continued without stopping for about half a minute, finally stopping to look in the water. Starmie was laying unconscious on the bottom of the pool. The leader recalled her Pokemon and started making her way towards the challengers platform. Meanwhile, Pikachu used the berries to arrive next to Red, grabbing the last one on his way, to begin eating it when at his trainer's foot.

"Congratulations on your victory. The Cascade badge is yours. I have to say that you were the most surprising opponent I had to face in a long time. I will have to rethink some things about my tactics in case someone comes up with something like this again. By the way, how did you arrive at this idea?"

Red looked at her with a blank stare. An image of Blue's legs formed in his head and he began to blush uncontrollably "I... My friend came up with it."

"Oh. Is that so? Anyway, I wish you luck on your journey. There are still 5 badges you have to get."

"Or 6." Red said while adjusting his hat.

"What do you mean?"

"Brock will call you soon and explain everything."

. . .

On their way to Pokemon Center, Pikachu played around with the new badge. Red was wondering if he should thank Blue for giving him that tactic, but quickly dismissed that thought, when he realized that it would be too embarrassing to explain it. After arriving at the Pokemon Center, he started looking around but Blue was nowhere to be found again. The nurse noticed him wandering through the place and called him over.

"Oh. I have to heal Eevee." he remembered and went over to the counter "Hi. It's me again. Could you take care of my buddy?"

"Uh... Yes, of course. But before that, there is a note for you."

"A note? From who?"

"From your female friend. The girl with the white hat."

"But why would she leave a note?"

"Oh... You didn't know? She said that she has to leave Cerulean City and she did, about an hour ago." the nurse looked worried, and somehow ashamed that she was the one that had to deliver these news.

Red was just standing there, too shocked to even look at the note he received.

* * *

This was certainly something. A lot of undertones. This chapter will somehow probably backfire seeing how it's the one showing my weebish nature the most.

I never actually watched Evangelion, although I have it in my plans. I did read the manga. It was cool but there was a lot of stuff I didn't care for. Apart from that, this chapter is probably most influenced by Flip Flappers which I've been watching last week.

Hmmm... After having Red using that tactic, I didn't have a plan for what Misty's counterattack could be, so I just kinda ended it in a silly way. In the games Pikachu wouldn't beat a Starmie so easily, but a lot of what Red does couldn't happen in the games.

I don't know what was my original intention behind splitting up the dynamic duo, but I came up with some kind of new reason. This will also lead to a fated meeting very soon.

For anyone who doesn't get the title it's a pun on My Conquest is the Sea of Stars which is a movie serving as a prologue to the classic anime Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I just reached the moment where it seems like everybody is gonna die and I'm consantly on the edge of my seat. I wonder if the new version is also good. Anyway, here are the updated statistics for the major characters.

Red. Team: Eevee, Charmander, Pikachu.

Badges: 2

Green. Team: Ivysaur, ?, Jigglypuff.

Badges: 2

Blue. Team: Bellsprout, Squirtle, Zubat.

Badges: 2

Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.

Angie. Team: ?, ?.

Peter. Team: ?, ?, ?.


	11. Chapter 11: Greed.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Rocket admins have an important meeting while Red tries to resolve an argument between two Pokemon.

Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 11: Greed.

After taking a couple minutes to come to his senses, Red got to a sofa and plopped down before looking at the note given to him by the nurse. He was worried if he it was something he did that caused Blue to leave but managed to get through his fear and started reading. The note read as follows "Hi, Red. It's me, Blue. But you already know this from the nurse. I..."

In that place and some other ones there were words that were crossed out. Although some of them still were readable, Red decided to omit them to get a clear message of what Blue wanted to tell him.

He continued reading the note "I know it's rude of me to do it this way but I just couldn't gather up the courage to say this to your face. Maybe I'm just being silly. What do you think? Maybe it wouldn't matter to you. But I can't pretend that it doesn't bother me. It's not your fault. I want to say that it isn't my fault either but since I was the one that saw this as an issue, I guess I'm at fault here."

The boy took a while to think about what the girl could have meant but still wasn't clear on what kind of message Blue was trying to get across, so he continued reading.

"Did you ever think about what would happen if we haven't met? I never would eat your cooking. I would get up late because you wouldn't be there to wake me up. On the other hand, you would get constantly lost. You would make even more rash decisions. We both have our flaws and in some crazy way, the life put the two of us together like it knew that we would compliment each other and together behave like one competent person. I can't have that. I like spending time with you, but my goal is to become a Pokemon Master. I could reach that with your help. But that wouldn't be fair. I wouldn't feel worthy of it if I knew that it wasn't by my own strength that I did it. There are some other things. If we are to fight in the league, I don't want to see all of your Pokemon and their tricks and for you to see mine, because that would make the fight too boring. I guess? And... Team Rocket. Although I helped you against them that one time, I can't afford to lose my dream by getting tangled up with criminals. That's all I had to say, I think. I hope you don't get this note the wrong way. I don't want to travel with you anymore but I had a great time with you and I really want to see you again as many times as possible."

The last couple of words were completely crossed out to the point of being covered by a black stripe.

Red felt a tear that was about to fall out of his right eye so he put a finger up to it, so that it wouldn't run down his face. He smiled, happy that he and Blue still remained good friends, but then he slowly got up, crumpled the note and, after reaching upwards with both of his arms, yelled out "Blueeeee! You won't get rid of me that easily! The next time we meet I'm gonna make you travel with me again! Till then, I wish you good luuuuuck!"

Blue, who was on Route 5, on her way to Vermillion City, felt shivers run through her entire buddy. Shocked by this, she grabbed her chest to calm herself down. She looked back towards Cerulean City which had almost disappeared behind the horizon, as if she was hoping that she would see Red coming after her to stop her from going through with this decision. But he wasn't there, so she continued walking forward.

"Um... Could you be quieter? You are disturbing other guest." the nurse said to Red.

After seeing that everybody in Pokemon Center was looking at him, his face turned Red and he sat down before saying a quiet "Sorry."

. . .

A couple days later, the Team Rocket admins gathered again in the same room as always. Since he wasn't on any mission it was a given that Alex arrived before anyone else.

Peter often was late to their meetings. When Alex asked him once for the reason, the long-haired man explained that it was hard to move around with his cape because, if he was too fast, he would trip.

On the other hand, Angie was always on time. She wouldn't want to waste the time she could use for other duties by sitting and waiting for a transmission.

But that day was certainly a special one. Realizing the creation of Codename M2 was the goal of their organization for the longest time. When Angie entered the room, she did her best to hide her feelings as always, but Alex still noticed that the corners of her mouth were rising by themselves into a smile that terrified him, since it was so unusual to see her with one. But it was easy to understand that of the three of them she was the one most looking forward to this day. After all, she was a member of Team Rocket since her childhood, whereas Alex and Peter joined only a couple years ago. Peter arrived just as the screen lit up.

"Welcome everybody." said the same scientist they saw 3 days ago "I see that you all can't contain your excitement."

Alex looked at the others with a doubtful look. Even though Peter cared about this project atleast as much as him, he didn't show any signs of it. He even covered his mouth to stop the yawn coming from his mouth. This irritated Alex to the point that he decided to keep his eyes glued to the screen.

"The wait is over. As promised, we managed to finish working on Codename M2 on time. It took us many years but finally we have arrived at this point. But it's not my place to talk about it. I will let Doctor Humane talk you through it, since he was in charge of the project."

"Good day, admins of Team Rocket." a voice could be heard from somewhere offscreen.

It seemed like the communication device was placed in a specific place and they didn't want to move it because it could end up not being placed back in the same exact way it was at that time.

"I'm sorry that you can't see me right now but I'm in the control room that operates this whole place. What you can see instead is a metal hatch placed in the floor. If I press the right buttons and switches, the hatch will open and the container with M2 will rise up to the surface."

"Excuse me." very slowly said Peter.

"Yes?" answered Doctor Humane.

"You are about to show us the thing we all want to see, but what about our boss? If he was watching it, the screen would be split and we would be able to see him, right?"

Alex was shocked that Peter was the one to point out such a fact, seeing how normally his attention span lasted about half a second. On the other hand, Angie slapped both of her cheeks, ashamed that she wasn't the one to notice it.

"Don't worry." Doctor Humane calmed them down "Actually, our work on M2 has been finished since 2 days ago but we wanted to keep it under wraps so the boss could come here and inspect what we achieved by himself. He saw it yesterday. But beside him and the scientists who worked on the project, you will be the first ones to see what it looks like."

"Oh... Then go ahead." said Peter.

"Alright. Here goes."

After a couple quiet sounds, which were probably Doctor Humane operating the machinery, the hatch began to open and a stream of cold air began escaping from inside. The container in which M2 resided was a tube which was over 2 meters high. It contained various electronics on top and bottom and was covered by ice in some places. The inside couldn't be seen because the cold caused the glass to become foggy.

The scientist from before returned with a winter coat and gloves on his body and used his hands to clean the front of the container, finally revealing what was inside. Alex and Angie both stood up with excited faces. Peter couldn't be bothered but his eyes which were usually half closed due to him being sleepy, were now fully open as he looked on with admiration for the being that stood in front of them. I was a tall being with a tail and two horns. They couldn't tell what color it was because of the green fluid it was sleeping inside.

"Project M2" Doctor Humane began speaking again "or how I like to call him, "Mewtwo" is as you know an attempt of copying the unique Pokemon known as Mew, in order to create a perfect being. A lot of our work was taken up by trying to create it from nothing, until we managed to get a sample of Mew's DNA. Even then, it took a couple years before we realized a way to deal with the instable nature of its body. It turned out that the thing we were missing was in us all along. Mewtwo is a combination of the DNA of three beings; Mew, myself and our boss. We went through a limited test yesterday and checked its brainwaves, finding out that they are more similar to human ones than those found in Pokemon. We want this Pokemon to walk among us as an equal and hope to convince him to our cause of uniting the world under the rule of Team Rocket. If we will be able to go into the stage of mass production, a small group of Mewtwo will be enough to stop any armed conflict or help people during natural disasters. I have to say, I have never been so proud as during these last couple..."

His speech was interrupted by a loud sound of something being smashed. Flashes of light appeared from somewhere offscreen.

"What the hell are you doing?!" the voice of Doctor Humane could be heard.

"We won't allow Team Rocket to control the world! Without this thing you won't be a threat! Our darkness will envelop Kanto and you can't do nothing about..." an unknown voice started shouting somewhere but went quiet after a punching sound.

"What happened?!" Alex yelled.

"It was a member of Darkness Gang!" explained Doctor Humane "He disguised as one of my assistants and used a wrench to smash the machinery I was using to contain Mewtwo! I'll try to do something before..."

"Look!" Peter stood up, causing his hood to fall off, as he pointed towards the face of the artificial Pokemon.

"Oh no. No, no, no, no!" despair could be heard in Doctor Humane's words.

Mewtwo opened its eyes.

"What... What is it gonna do?" Angie asked with a cracking voice.

They all stood there trembling with uneasiness, only being able to imagine what the people on the other side of the screen felt like.

"It's... It's speaking." said Doctor Humane.

"What? I don't hear anything." Alex grabbed onto his ears as if he wanted to make sure that there was nothing wrong with them.

"It's using telepathy..." continued the Doctor "...and it's not happy that it's trapped... Wait! You got it wrong! You aren't trapped!"

The only things the admins could see was a split second flash of explosion. The sound couldn't reach them because the communication machine of the other party was obliterated in an instant. Their screen turned into a fuzzy mess of pixels and they stared at it for the next couple seconds, their brains not being capable of understanding what happened.

"Oh no! Did it break out?!" Alex yelled "Are they fine?! We have to do something!"

"I... I..." Peter couldn't find any right words.

"Calm down!" Angie ordered them, even though she herself was covered by sweat originating from anxiety "First things first! We have to call the boss! I'll do it! Meanwhile, Alex!"

"Yes?!"

"Run over to the intercom room and be ready to relay the information to the whole base in case it's needed!"

"Roger!" he quickly saluted before running out the door.

"And you, Peter!"

"What is it?"

"Go to the hangar in case the boss orders us to send a party there, since this base is closer than the one in Saffron!"

"Got it!" he answered before pulling up his cape, which was supposed to allow him easier movement.

Angie began using an input device located on the whole to connect with the boss. After a short while the screen turned on. Before Angie could turn around to see his face, she already heard his hard, cold voice saying "Yes? What is it?"

. . .

While Team Rocket were dealing with their problem, Red encountered a completely different conundrum on his way to Vermilion City. He stood there watching a rather poor excuse for a battle, as a wild Meowth was putting all his strength into trying to pull a out an Oddish which has planted itself into the middle of the path the boy was travelling on.

The trainer squatted down to watch the situation up-close, while the cat Pokemon was too preoccupied with what it was doing to notice the new company. Eevee was out of his pokeball and also couldn't take his eyes away from what was happening. It looked to him like some kind of game, and when the Meowth's paws finally slipped and he fell on the ground, the dog ran up and decided to give a try by pulling on Oddish's leaves with its teeth. He was successful, but the weight of the grass Pokemon caused them both to fall on the cat. When Meowth's and Oddish's eyes met, the both of them quickly got up and assumed fighting stances.

"Oh boy. Eevee, can you try to stop them?"

The dog ran between them and started barking at both sides of the conflict. The Pokemon waited for him to stop and they both gave some kind of answers. But they kept interrupting each other and getting even more agitated, which finally led to them starting a fight, despite Eevee being in the middle of it. The dog managed to jump to safety and ran over to its trainer where it frantically tried to relay the situation to him.

"I... You know that I can't understand what you're saying, right?" Red asked with a worried expression "Maybe you can show me instead?"

Eevee thought about it for a bit and finally came up with an idea of how to convey the message. He pointed to one of Red's pokeballs, so the trainer proceeded to release Charmander who was apparently needed in this presentation.

The dog said something to the lizard who nodded in response. Then, Eevee pointed again, this time to Red's bag. The trainer took out one of the berries they were supposed to eat for lunch and seeing what the Pokemon wanted him to do, he placed it next to a bush on the side of the road, which in his understanding was supposed to imitate that the berry was in fact growing on said bush. Everything was set in place for the presentation.

The Pokemon began their cute, amusing play with Charmander pretending that he was a wild Oddish. He was holding up two long leaves he found to indicate that he was playing the role of the grass Pokemon. He walked around for a while, pretending to search for something. Finally, he walked over to the bush where the berry was laying and picked it up with a triumphant shout. Then, he started looking around, as if he wanted to check that no one saw what he was doing.

After that, he dug a small hole and placed the berry inside and walked over to a patch of grass where he laid down and closed his eyes. He moved his tail in a slow arc, indicating the passage of time and setting of the sun, until the flame was hidden behind a tree, seemingly telling Red that it was night.

Then, Eevee who to Red's understanding was imitating the Meowth by making a catlike face, walked onto the scene and also acted like he was searching for berries. But to his disappointment, he couldn't find any on the bushes or trees. He was about to give up, but he stumbled onto the hole in which the berry, found earlier by Charmander/Oddish, was hidden. He didn't know why the berry would be in a hole but he didn't care since he needed food to survive. He took the berry to his lair and ate half of it, after which he left the rest for the morning and also went to sleep.

When Charmander/Oddish woke up and found out that the food he was hoping to eat for breakfast disappeared, he followed the footprints left by the thief and followed them to his berry which was already half eaten. He wanted to give the sleeping Eevee/Meowth a pummeling, but he was too hungry. He decided to eat what was left of the berry before attacking the thief. But the sounds of chomping, woke up the sleeping one. They started fighting and when Oddish was badly scratched he decided to regain some of his strength by planting itself in the ground and using some kind of healing move. That was at least what Red got out of that explanation.

"Okay. I think I understand." he said and turned his head towards the fight that was taking place behind him.

Both of the Pokemon were almost out of strength and they movements have gotten slower.

"Charmander. You're up."

Answering the command, the lizard ran in between the fighters and used his tail to knock both of them down to the ground. They didn't have enough energy to get up but were still arguing verbally.

"Okay, guys. Enough is enough!" the boy yelled "It isn't worth it to fight over a misunderstanding. If you promise to forgive each other, I will give each of you a berry and you can go on your way. How about that?"

The Pokemon gave it some though and both said something to which Charmander nodded his head. The trainer understood and reached into his bag to give them Oran berries. Both of the got 1 berry and began eating it. After regaining their strength, they looked at Red with hopeful eyes.

"First you have to say that you're sorry to the other Pokemon."

They turned face to face and said something with happy faces, after which Meowth shook one of Oddish's leaves like a hand. After seeing that, Red gave both of them some more regular berries. Oddish immediately began eating another one, while Meowth was just looking at the ones he got. He sometimes glanced to what the other one was doing. Finally, he open his mouth and somehow managed to fit all his berries inside and then jumped over to Oddish and used his paws to steal 2 other berries before quickly running away.

"Aaand... There he's gone. I guess it's weird to expect a wild Pokemon to learn a lesson in sharing. Well, it was worth a try."

He stood up and turned around to pick up his bag, before returning Charmander to his pokeball.

"We wasted enough time. We'll never catch up to Blue if we dilly-dally."

Red and Eevee were about to be on their way when the trainer felt something tugging on his leg. He looked down and saw that the Oddish still hasn't left.

"I'm sorry. I just can't go giving out all my berries or we'll have nothing to eat. Unless... you wanna come along?"

The Oddish stood there for some time. The boy thought that the Pokemon was going over the proposition, but then Eevee walked closer to Oddish and looked up to say something to his trainer. The teenager crouched and saw that the grass Pokemon somehow managed to fall asleep while standing.

"I guess he was still tired... Aren't sleeping Pokemon easier to catch?"

Red put one of his empty pokeballs up to Oddish's forehead and the Pokemon went in without a problem, with the sphere immediately giving out the sound that signified the capture.

"Hmm... That was kinda uneventful."

* * *

That was a joke. These last words, I mean. Since the chapter didn't really have any real fighting but a lot of stuff still happened. Blue left Red, Mewtwo finally appeared and escaped at the same time, Red caught Oddish. Yeah, a lot of stuff.

Since each part was equally important, I had a little trouble coming up with the name of the chapter. The way I came up with it was by going off the phrase "Strongest Pokemon in The World" which I think will be a chapter name down the line. Because of that, I remembered the character of Rudol von Stroheim from Battle Tendency, the second part of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. I saw that he was based on the real life person, Erich von Stroheim who worked in the movie industry. The wikipedia article mentioned a movie called "Greed" as seemingly his best work. The guy, by the way, looks really scary. When I thought of "Greed" I realized that to some extent it could apply to all the parts of this story. Red is greedy in that he wants Blue by his side, no matter her reasons for leaving him. Team Rocket are greedy in that they want to rule the world. You can't really get greedier than that. And Meowth is greedy in the way he wanted all the berries he could get instead of just the one he got from Red's good will.

In the original version, the whole Mewtwo part wasn't there and the berry part was supposed to feature groups of Oddish and Meowth instead of just single Pokemon.

Also, Darkness Gang! They weren't in the original plans for any chapter, but since then I came up with 2 stories that would need villains other than Team Rocket so I decided to make a secondary evil organization. They won't be a part of the main conflict but they will pop up quite soon to cause some trouble so I went and introduced them here.

Also, I hope that nobody takes Blue's letter the wrong way.

Next chapter, Red arrives in Vermilion. After that, there will be one more chapter, before we get into the Special Chapter. More about that in the following chapters. 

Red. Team: Eevee, Charmander, Pikachu, Oddish.

Badges: 2

Green. Team: Ivysaur, ?, Jigglypuff, ?.

Badges: 2

Blue. Team: Bellsprout, Squirtle, Zubat.

Badges: 2

Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.

Angie. Team: ?, ?.


	12. Chapter 12: Vermilion City Blues.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue has an unlucky day. Meanwhile, Red tries to get on a boat.

Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 12: Vermilion City Blues.

It was almost the end of summer but the temperatures were still high. It was a day after Blue arrived in Vermilion City. She arrived rather late so she couldn't go to challenge the Gym right away, as she would have preferred. Instead she spent the night at the Pokemon Center.

When she woke up she moved through the building carefully, afraid that she would meet Red, which could lead to an awkward situation. To her relief he wasn't there. However, a downside of her travelling alone was that she had to provide the food for herself.

She took out her inventory pad, a device based around Bill's research which instead of Pokemon could store items and allowed trainers to carry a lot of stuff without being bothered by their weight. The one belonging to Blue contained two spare sets of the same clothes she was usually wearing, underwear, pajamas, a one piece swimsuit, healing items, pokeballs, her tent and various things which helped with hygiene when not at a Pokemon Center. Another thing she would usually store there were berries and bottles of water gathered by Red. Since they were transformed into data they would never go bad. But sadly, Blue consumed all her reserves.

She decided to go find some restaurant to eat breakfast at. On the way to the center of the city she got quite thirsty because of the burning sun. Fortunately, she stumbled onto a vending machine. When she has chosen a beverage she took out some coins from her wallet but the sweat caused her hand to slip and drop the money.

She carefully kneeled down and started to gather it but some of it went under the machine. She moved to the right side, thinking it would be easier to get it out. The position she was in was uncomfortable but she didn't want any of her money to go to waste. Suddenly, she heard some clicking sounds and then something falling down. She looked up and saw a boy about her age. It was no one other than Green. But at that point in time she didn't know it yet.

"Here." he said while taking out a can of peach soda from the machine and handing it to her.

"Huh? Uh... Thanks." she took it in her hand.

After realizing that she was practically laying on the ground, she got embarrassed and quickly stood up while trying to get the dirt off her skirt.

"Why did you give it to me?" she asked.

"It was sad seeing someone who was so poor that they would roll in the dirt to find some coins. I'm sorry that I can't help you more."

"What?!" she yelled while a vein popped up on her forehead.

She threw the can at him, and the boy barely managed to dodge it.

"What are you doing?! Do you want to kill me?!"

"I'm not homeless or whatever you thought! I don't need your charity!"

"Okay, okay. Sorry for the mistake. I'll leave you be." he said while slowly beginning to walk away.

"Crazy lady." he added so quietly that she couldn't hear him.

After he left, Blue saw that the can she threw landed on soft grass and wasn't damaged, so she picked it up while making sure that no one could have seen her and mistake for a poor person again. She wondered however how the boy figured out that peach soda was her favorite.

. . .

At the same time as the encounter between Blue and Green took place, Red also finally arrived in Vermilion City. His nose twitched a little so he decided to focus on the smell that got stronger the further he went. He didn't know what it was yet, but it was the first time in his life he was so close to the sea so the air around him was a little different to the one he was used to.

Because of the smell, he passed the map of the city which was right by the entrance he went through to get there. But he soon started looking around when the smell mixed with another one. He realized that he was walking through a fish market. Red smiled when looking at crowds of people haggling over prices and shopkeepers trying to woo potential customers by saying how good they products were.

When he finally passed all of the stands, having to shoo away a man who insisted that the boy try some of his goods, he arrived at the port. He had to hold onto his hat when a strong gust of wind hit him. After that, he wandered around while looking at containers and various people walking around in a hurry. As he went further he started seeing glimpses of the water, but the port was full of boats, which, while impressive, were hiding from him the thing he wanted to see the most.

Red noticed a crane which was about 12 meters high and using the fact that no one was around, he climbed onto its arm. After getting to the very top, he looked at the vastness that was spreading in front of him. The sea was calm and the sky was clear. At that moment, there was only one thing Red could see.

"Everything is blue."

"Hey! Get down from there!" a male voice came from below.

Red looked down and saw a sailor with a big package held beside his head by one of his arms. The boy slid down the arm of the crane and did a somersault before landing in front of the man. He looked surprised by this acrobatic feat.

"I... I wanted to say that it's dangerous but after that... Anyway, you shouldn't do that. There have been news of some suspicious guys who want to sneak on St. Anne and if you do stuff like that, they make take you for one of them."

"St. Anne?"

"It's that big ship over there." the man said while pointing with his free arm to an enormous cruise ship.

"Ooh! I didn't notice it!"

"You didn't notice? Are you okay in the head? It's the biggest thing here."

Red quickly looked up and then to side before replying "Third biggest."

The man looked confused but before he could ask the teenager what he meant by that, the boy already ran in the direction of St. Anne.

. . .

Meanwhile, Blue managed to find a restaurant that seemed like a nice place for a breakfast. As she reached for the handle of the doors, they suddenly swung open, almost hitting her. She jumped a little but then let out a sight, glad that she wasn't hurt. Immediately, she decided to scold whomever it was that opened the door. She stopped herself after seeing what they looked like.

It was a pair of men in their 30's, both rather tall and muscular. They wore black leather pants and vests. One of them had dark skin and an eyepatch while the other was wearing a black cap and had a chain wrapped around his waist. Additionally, both of them had large moustaches. If she saw them on TV, she would probably laugh out loud, but when seeing them in real life, she immediately realized that they were the types that one should not mess with.

Seemingly ignoring her, they walked forward. The dark-skinned one didn't avoid her, even though she was in his path which caused the girl to be knocked aside. Before she could tell what has happened, she had her bottom on the ground and the two men already disappeared inside one of the alleys.

"Why does this have to happen to me?" the girl lamented while standing up.

Even though her day was already ruined, she didn't suspect that soon it was going to get even worse. She went into the restaurant and after getting a menu from the waitress, she selected a Spaghetti with Octillery ink, whatever an Octillery was.

When she finished eating and informed the waitress that she was ready to pay the bill, she arrived at a grim realization; her wallet was missing. She frantically searched through her bag and checked to make sure that she didn't accidentally put it in her inventory pad. She grabbed her head with both hands and looked down in despair, thinking about how she would go to jail for not paying and how she would be locked up with various criminals. This train of thought led her to recall the encounter with two men which transpired around 30 minutes earlier. It had to be them. The man bumped into her un purpose and used her fear as a distraction to steal her wallet.

She got up, full of anger, but after remembering her situation, immediately sat down. Even though she had her suspicions, she couldn't prove that she was robbed until she found these men, and she couldn't do that without leaving the restaurant which was impossible without her paying the bill.

She heard the doors of the restaurant open and decided to look in that direction as if she was hoping that some sort of salvation would appear in them. To her surprise, the person that arrived there was the boy she met earlier. Immediately, she formed a plan in her head. It was a gamble but she didn't see any other option.

"Excuse me, waitress."

"Yes?" the woman said while walking over to her.

"I have to go but my boyfriend will pay my bill."

"Boyfriend?" the woman asked with a puzzled expression.

Blue pointed to the boy who was still hanging around the door, probably trying to decide on where he wanted to sit.

"Hey!" Blue yelled to him while waving her hand.

At first he didn't realize that he was the one being called but after seeing her, he instinctively put up his hand and waved back, although a little confused why the girl would welcome him happily after how she acted before. Blue stood up and took her bag before she started walking in his direction. He wanted to say something but she was quicker "Thanks for paying my bill. Just wait here. I'll be back."

She said these words very quickly and before Green could process what just happened, she was already gone. He wanted to go after her but a whistle from the waitress stopped him. He turned around and saw the woman tapping the floor impatiently with one of her feet.

"You have to pay for your girlfriend before you leave."

. . .

A little earlier, while Blue was still waiting for her meal, Red managed to reach the St. Anne by carefully squeezing between containers and ducking whenever someone was about to accidentally hit him with a beam or some other thing they were carrying.

He has been staring at it for about 20 minutes. The ship was so tall that he felt a little pain in his neck when he had to look up to see it. He also had to look to the sides because he was too close to have its entire length in his view. Just as he was amazed at the sea before, he couldn't find words for how excited he was to see this machine.

He started approaching the ship when he was noticed by a sailor who quickly ran over and tackled him. Red was confused for a couple seconds, not entirely sure what just happened.

The man got up. He had short brown hair, a big round nose, really hairy arms, and it was hard to determine whether he was chubby or muscular. He looked to be around 30 years old. After standing up her reached his hand towards Red to help him.

"You really should look where you're going."

After hearing that, Red realized that he was so close to the boat that he was about to fall into water.

"Oh man. That was close. It's just... this thing looks so awesome."

"I know. I've been part of the crew for 5 years and I'm still amazed every time I get to look at it from the outside. But when I'm on-board, I completely forget about it since I'm surrounded by something that's much more impressive."

"The sea."

"Yeah."

And then came a period of silence when both of them were just staring at the ship while inhaling the sea breeze.

"Soooo... Can I get on?" Red asked finally.

"Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's still a little early but just go over to the ramp and show the guy your ticket." the sailor answered with a slight smile.

Red looked at him with a worried expression "My ticket?"

"Uh? Yes? What do you mean? Don't tell me you wanted to get on-board without your ticket."

"You keep saying "your ticket" like it's supposed to mean something. I don't have a ticket."

The sailors eyes widened as he took a step back.

"Wait just a moment! You want to get on the ship without a ticket?! We were warned that some thugs may want to sneak onto the ship to steal the stuff that's up for auction but I never thought somebody would have the gall to do it in the open!"

"Wait! It's a mistake!" Red put his hands up as a sign of protest but it was already too late to change the sailor's mind.

"I won't let you get away! Go, Kangaskhan!"

A large, brown Pokemon appeared before Red. The boy quickly checked the Pokedex to learn that it's a normal type. But he was slightly confused as to why the image shown in the Pokedex included something that looked like a smaller version of the Pokemon sticking its head out from the pouch on the belly of the bigger one. The one standing in front of him didn't have anything in its pouch.

"What are you waiting for?! Call out your Pokemon!" the sailor yelled.

"But... What? Why would you allow me to do that?"

"I'm a proud warrior whose goal is to win the Pokemon league. I will always allow an opponent a fair fight, no matter who they are. I'll warn you that I have 5 other Pokemon besides Kangaskhan."

Red smiled. The sailor was a little rash but the teenager liked his honesty.

"I'll take you up on that. Go, Charmander!"

After being released mid-air, the lizard performed a somersault before landing on all fours. He started looking around to see where its foe was but something huge was obscuring his view. He looked up to see what it was and finally saw that it was the one he was about to fight. He got a little frightened by the size of his opponent but put on a brave face and growled loudly.

Kangaskhan lifted one of its leg, pretending that he was about to step on Charmander. The lizard hid his head behind his hands, only to realize that the enemy was just making fun of him. This caused all his uneasiness to be replaced with anger. His mouth was fuming with smoke as he was getting ready to use Ember as soon as he was given the command.

"By the way, my name is Michael."

"I'm called Red."

"Okay, Red. Let's begin! Kangaskhan, Comet Punch!"

Although his opponent began the attack, he was fairly slow, so Charmander had no problem with avoiding the punch which instead hit the ground. But he got too confident in thinking that it was the end of the attack. Instead, Kangaskhan continued on punching with each of his arms. Finally, the lizard had nowhere to escape and the massive fist knocked him down to the ground where he was hit by another one.

The normal type Pokemon stood proudly after showing off its power. Charmander got up slowly and massaged his hurt back with one of his hands. He bit his lip and closed the left eye while dealing with pain.

"Charmander, back off!" Red commanded.

The lizard listened and retreated to what he assumed to be a safe distance.

"For now let's try Ember!"

Charmander had to gather the energy needed from the start as the one he wanted to use earlier quickly went back to its source after he was hit. But it didn't take a long time for him to shoot out a volley of flaming balls. To both his and Red's disappointment, Kangaskhan shrugged off the attack like it was nothing. It continued to stand there while giving them a provocative look.

"What Kangaskhan lacks in speed he more than makes up in strength and stamina." Michael praised his partner.

Charmander looked at its trainer, waiting for a command but Red was swallowed by his thoughts until he heard the Pokemon's cry.

"Ah! Sorry. I'm just trying to come up with something. Even though Ember did barely any damage, it's the only option we can go with for now. Using Scratch would be too dangerous and Smokescreen is useful only when you want to occupy a fast enemy. I will try to come up with something while you just do your thing."

The Pokemon looked unsure about his trainers decision but he still followed the order he received and kept showering his foe with fiery bullets, but even when Kangaskhan finally started to feel the attacks being effective, it kept up its proud stance, going as far as gesturing with one of its hands that it wanted Charmander to continue. That was the final incentive that the lizard needed to stop this farce and to go for some up-close offensive.

"No! Stop!"

Red's shout was too late. The lizard already managed to approach its foe only to meet a powerful Double Hit which yet again sent it onto the pavement. Kangaskhan didn't make any unnecessary moves and allowed the lizard to slowly get up just so it could hit him with another 2 Comet Punches. The second one was an upward strike which sent Charmander flying. Red ran over to grab the Pokemon in his hands.

"That's enough. I'll let Pikachu handle it." the boy said as he took out a pokeball.

Upon hearing these words, the lizard bit one the teenager's hands and fell down.

"Ow! What the hell are you doing?!"

The Pokemon looked at him with a more angry look that Red ever saw him with. That's when the trainer realized that he was going wrong about the whole thing. He was so focused on finding a way to win the battle that he forgot that Charmander wanted the same thing as him. There were many thoughts going through the fire Pokemon's head that he didn't know about but could have if he sometimes decided to look into what it was thinking.

Charmander was a natural fighter. After learning that Eevee and Pikachu both played parts in Red obtaining his 2 badges, the Pokemon started to feel worse about himself. He wanted to prove himself even though he didn't know how. He wasn't bright enough to come up with a strategy of his own so all he could do was give his best and hope that Red would appreciate it and find a way to win.

"Dammit!" the boy yelled while punching his open hand with the other one.

The lizard looked up with him, seeing that the trainer finally understood him.

"I'm sorry, Charmander. I never wanted to make you feel worse than the others. I never wanted to have you feel useless. Instead of having you hang back I should have allowed you to fight up-close since that's your specialty. But... I don't have any plan. I don't know if there is any way to win this fight... But the one thing I can do is let you give it your all, so in the end there will be no regrets. How about it?"

The Pokemon nodded with a confident look.

"Okay! Charmander, attack!"

The lizard began running towards its opponent and as it was getting closer, the flame on its tail began to grow. What Red didn't realize at that time was that it was caused by the activation of Charmander's ability, Blaze. That was because of what it caused to happen seconds later. The fire grew so large that it finally enveloped Charmander's body. In this state, the Pokemon decided to run straight into Kangskhan's belly. Although the massive Pokemon stood its ground, ready to receive the full force of the attack, it soon learned that it was the mistake. The move used by Charmander proved to be several times more powerful than Ember. Kangaskhan grabbed onto its belly while coughing because of the difficulty to breathe.

"It's not over! Keep attacking, Charmander!"

The Pokemon listened and again began running at Kangaskhan. Although the sailor's Pokemon tried to avoid, its foe somehow seemed to be faster than before and easily avoided the Comet Punch which was about to hit him, on his way to deliver another blow. The massive Pokemon was still standing but before Charmander got a chance to repeat its attack a third time, it was called back by its trainer.

"Okay. That will be it." said Michael.

The flames around Charmander's body disappeared and Red ran over to grab before it collapsed from exhaustion.

"You pass the test." declared the sailor.

"The test? I'm not sure I follow." replied Red.

"I took you for a criminal but no matter if you are one or not, I can't see someone who cares about his Pokemon so deeply as a person."

Red's face shone up with excitement "Does that mean I can get on the ship?"

"No."

"What?!"

"The rules are the rules. Even if you are not a criminal, nobody can enter without a ticket."

"Oh man. What am I gonna do? It's not like I know anybody who would just give me a ticket."

"Well... Maybe it's not much of a consolation but it's still pretty early, and the short cruise during which the auction will take place won't start until 2 o'clock. As long as you don't get in the way, you can stay here and keep me company."

"Okay! Hmm... I'll visit the Pokemon Center but I'll be back as quick as I can!"

"Goodbye for now."

"Bye."

* * *

 

First off, the title for this one was probably the hardest one to come up with and I'm still not sure I like it. I had to hit myself like 5 times when thinking about it, because somehow my mind just stopped and it took me too long to realize that I was just sitting there, not thinking, writing or doing anything else. It's like some song titles and a phrase that appears in various places. Blank City Blues. Here, besides the usual meaning, it refers to the three blues appearing in the chapter; the sea, the sky and the trainer Blue.

And since I'm already talking about Blue, I should mention how excited I am for this meeting. In the original plans Blue and Green don't meet until much later on. I thought that it was a weird place for their first meeting. You'll realize what I mean when we reach that point. But I'm really glad that I came up with this story. Even though bad things happen to Blue, from the readers points of view it's just funny(I hope) antics. 

The Special Chapter. Yes. I mentioned it previously so it's time for some explanation as to why it's special. It's gonna be a feature. What the hell does that mean? It will be a longer story that will play out in its entirety in that one chapter. It will be like what Pokemon movies are to the Pokemon anime, with 2 major differences. It will have its place in the story, meaning that I won't end a chapter with a cliffhanger and the suddenly have characters in a completely different place in the Special Chapter. And also, although the story will be kinda self-contained, there may be(by which I mean, there definitely will be) some things that happen there that will later be brought up so it's not like it's skippable. Besides this one, I have 2 other Special Chapters planned. All of them will be connected by a new character. So far, I can say that the character is inspired by me watching a lot of Detective Conan recently.

If anyone is wondering how Michael wants to win Pokemon league while he's a sailor, I'll proably explain it later on. That's all for now.

Red. Team: Eevee, Charmander, Pikachu, Oddish.

Badges: 2

Green. Team: Ivysaur, ?, Jigglypuff, ?.

Badges: 2

Blue. Team: Bellsprout, Squirtle, Zubat.

Badges: 2

Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.

Angie. Team: ?, ?.

Peter. Team: ?, ?, ?.


	13. Chapter 13: Green's Day.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Green just can't get a break.

Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 13: Green's Day.

Green never gave it much thought, but if he were to say if he was a forgiving person, the answer would probably be "yes". He knew that he could sometimes come off as rude since he liked being quick and to the point, but he tried his best to never let his feelings get the better of him. It was the same that day when a stranger, a girl he met by accident refused his hospitality only to take advantage of him about an hour later. But nevertheless, he was still trying to understand the girl's point of view as a way to keep himself from getting angry. And "trying" is a good word.

"If I get my hands on her, I swear that I'll tear her apart." he said to himself while running through the streets Vermilion City in search of the mystery girl.

His Ivysaur who accompanied him as an additional pair of eyes, was slightly worried, seeing the usually calm boy act in such a way.

"We'll never find her this way." said the teenager, after stopping to catch his breath.

He looked up and had to put a hand above his eyes to stop the light coming from the sun rising behind some buildings. That gave him an idea of a better way to find the girl.

. . .

"Kids these days are so dumb. How much wallets is that so far? 7? And it's not even noon." the voice was coming from one of the 2 men that bumped into Blue, specifically the one with a cap.

"Yeah. Can you imagine that Team Rocket didn't want us to join them?" replied the other one.

"Who needs those idiots? We have enough money party for 2 weeks. I don't mind dying young if I can enjoy myself all the time."

"Ain't that the truth, brother?"

Both of them smiled as they raised cups filled with some kind of alcohol to lightly hit them against each other. They were sitting on wooden crates in a dirty back alley. The bottle was already half empty. Next to them were their Pokemon, a Marowak and a Lickitung, which were enjoying some fish burgers of which their trainers bought about 30.

"I found you!" a voice came from behind a wooden fence which isolated the alley from one connected to backdoors of various establishments.

2 of the boards suddenly shot out in their direction with Marowak using his bone to knock them down in order to protect the men.

"Hey, what's the big idea?!" yelled the dark-skinned one.

The being that appeared in front of them was emanating an aura that would make anyone tremble. It was like an incarnation of some kind of vengeful god came to pay them a visit. But after they calmed down a little, they saw that it was just one of the people they stole from that morning. Blue apparently used her Squirtle's Water Gun to get through the fence. She was staring them down while keeping her arms crossed and one of her legs placed atop a brick which must have come loose from one of the surrounding buildings.

"My day was already going bad, but then you had to come along and make it worse by stealing my wallet. I will make you pay." she declared.

The dark-skinned one started laughing. He found the situation so funny that he had to clean a tear that came to his eye.

"Who the hell do you think you are? Acting all high and mighty. Get lost before we kick your ass!" he replied at last.

The girl didn't see a point in talking to them any longer. She just wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. She put up her right arm. It was a sign which told Squirtle to begin his attack. The turtle jumped up while rotating before it hid in its shell. While it landed on the ground, even though its limbs were hidden, it somehow was able to keep moving. It behaved somehow like a combination of a hockey puck and a homing missile. It traversed the alley too fast for its enemies to react. It approached the Lickitung and hit it right in the stomach, at the same time, sending the pink Pokemon into the legs of the man in the cap. The adult lost his footing and fell over on his Pokemon.

Seeing that the girl wasn't joking around, the other one commanded "Marowak, stop that thing! Bone Club!"

The Pokemon obeyed and used the bone it was carrying to hit Squirtle's shell. The attack didn't do too much damage but Marowak added his weight on top of it to stop the turtle in place. Its trainer took that moment to pull out a switchblade. He ran towards the girl who started reaching for one of the pokeballs on her belt. But it turned out that what she was doing was not only too slow, but also unnecessary. The man's approach was stopped by a knee that out of nowhere smashed into his face.

He fell over and while crying in pain, tried to stop the bleeding from his broken nose and dislocated jaw. Blue looked on in astonishment as the boy she met already 2 times, descended in front of her like a guardian angel. When she came to her senses, she realized that he was wrapped in something which extended upwards. She looked to the roofs and saw that the boy managed to get down from one of them thanks to his Ivysaur's vines.

"Thanks for savi..." she began, but was stopped right away when the boy turned around and pointed a finger at her.

"I will help you for now, but you better pay back for that spaghetti." he stated.

She quickly saluted him while saying "Yes, sir. Thank you for your cooperation."

The man knocked over by Lickitung managed to get up and approached his friend, possibly hoping that there was some way he could help him, but judging by his face, he was at a loss on what do. The other one reassured him by standing up and giving him a pat on the back.

"Ghu wghi to..." the dark-skinned man started to talk, but stopped when he realized that, because of the injury, speaking hurts and he can't pronounce the words properly.

"Don't worry. I will take care of them." assured him the other one.

He stepped forward and his Lickitung was already by his side, while the Marowak was looking back at its trainer, unsure on whether he should also take part in the fight, seeing that he wouldn't be able to receive commands. Meanwhile, Ivysaur used its vines to get down from the roof and both he and Squirtle were already raring to fight.

"Lickitung, use Rollout!" the man in the cap yelled out.

The Pokemon stood there without doing anything for some time before it looked at its trainer with a confused expression.

"Uh... On the Ivysaur!" he added.

Finally, the normal Pokemon executed the command by curling up in to a ball and rolling in the direction of its opponent.

Green was quick to react "Vine Whip dodge!"

Ivysaur used its vines to pull himself to a drainpipe, managing to avoid the oncoming attack. Lickitung stopped with a screech and started looking around, trying to understand why he didn't hit his target.

"Leaf Storm!" ordered Green.

The grass Pokemon began shooting out multiple leaves which spun through air while surrounding Lickitung. Marowak still didn't receive an order but, seeing that his battle partner was about to be in serious trouble, he decided to use Bonemerang, which consisted of him throwing his bone with as much power as he could in Ivysaur's direction.

"Water Gun!"

Ordered by Blue, Squirtle shot out a high pressure stream of water which knocked down the flying bone. Seeing that, Marowak started running to pick up his weapon.

"Rapid Spin!"

Without the bone, there was no way for the ground Pokemon to stop this attack, and he was almost instantly hit and sent flying towards his trainer. Meanwhile, Lickitung was already being hit by a tornado of razor-sharp leaves.

"Whi bhep thu zwof bhen!" the man with injured face was panicking, but his words couldn't be understood by his accomplice.

Marowak stood up and started to gather its strength by using Focus Energy, to be ready for his next move.

"Defense Curl!" the man in the cap ordered his Pokemon.

Lickitung formed himself into a ball again. This lessen the damage he was receiving from Leaf Storm, but also was the first step of its owner's plan.

"Now, use Rollout!"

Defense Curl caused the next move to become stronger which allowed Lickitung to break through the leaf avalanche and hit his unsuspecting opponent. On the other side of the battle, Marowak ran up to Squirtle again, but this time it jumped up in the air before attacking.

"Withdraw!" Blue ordered the turtle.

It proved to be pointless, since Marowak's Stomp hurt the water Pokemon even after it hid in its shell. Squirtle somehow managed to get up after its foe jumped back. It slowly retreated till it bumped into something. It was Ivysaur. They were now standing back to back with their enemies on either side of them.

"This doesn't look good." Blue commented with a worried expression.

"Can you keep them occupied for a little while?" Green asked her.

"Seems like you have a plan. I'll do my best." she responded before turning back to her Pokemon "Tori, it's time to use that!"

The Pokemon nodded and nudged Ivysaur while telling it something. After that, the turtle jumped up a little before going back in its shell and shooting out a Water Gun from inside in Marowak's direction. Ivysaur used it's vines to lift itself up because Squirtle's attack, aside from hitting the ground Pokemon, caused it to be propelled at Lickitung, hitting it in the head. The normal Pokemon quickly recovered from that and tried to hit Squirtle with its tongue, but its opponent jumped back. Not realizing that it was being lured, it followed. Marowak got up and started running towards Squirtle while picking up its bone on the way. It was at that moment that the men realized that Ivysaur was missing.

"Water Jump!" yelled Blue, who in this short time understood Green's plan.

Squirtle used Water Gun to shoot itself high into the air. At that moment, Lickitung turned around because of a strong light coming from behind him. Both he and Marowak looked terrified when they realized that while they were preoccupied with the other one, Ivysaur has been gathering energy in his bulb.

"Solar Beam!" shouted Green.

The energy gathered by Ivysaur was released in the form a beam which for a moment lit up the whole alley to the point where trainers had to close their eyes. After they opened them again, Marowak and Lickitung were both fainted on the ground. Squirtle used Rapid Spin in air to travel to its partner. The 2 men called back their Pokemon but still haven't learned their lesson, which could be judged by them trying to run away. Since Ivysaur was exhausted after it's show of power, Green swiftly grabbed one of his other pokeballs.

"Go, Hitmonlee! Double Kick!"

As soon as he was out of the ball, the fighting Pokemon ran after the criminals. During it's chase, it was moving so fast that it began running on the wall. When it quickly approached them, it delivered a kick to each of their faces, causing them both to faint, while also messing up their faces. Green recalled his Pokemon without a word before he walked over to the unconscious men. After searching their pockets, he returned with the 7 stolen wallets and presented them to Blue.

"Which is yours?"

"Oh. This one." she answered while taking one of them.

After looking inside, her face showed instant regret.

"What happened?"

"It's almost empty! They must have already spent all my money! How expensive was that alcohol?!"

Green put the other wallets on the ground and searched through them before saying "It seems like they haven't used the money in the other ones yet. We should probably return them to police together with those guys."

"Wait!" Blue yelled.

"What? You don't have to be so loud."

"Let me take care of this."

"Do you have some ulterior motive?" Green asked sarcastically.

"That's coming from you? You kneed that guy without hesitation just to get me to pay back for some stupid Spaghetti."

"Are you seriously trying to give a lecture about how I shouldn't have saved your life?"

"No, no. I am thankful. And I want to repay you, soooo..." while saying that, she used her eyes to point towards the wallets.

"You want to steal this money?"

"No, you dork! I want to give it to police. I just hope that the owners will give me some prize for returning it to them. I can't just tell my parents that I lost my money because they will send someone to take me back home for being irresponsible." she said with her face all red from a combination of anger and embarrassment.

Green turned around to give the matter some thought. He told himself that it was the pity he felt for the girl which made him trust her, but deep down he hid an interest for her that started to form since their first meeting. According to the rules he used with Red, he couldn't treat her like a friend yet, since all their encounters were pretty much one big thing, so he didn't even want to think about anything more than that. He considered some of the less appealing personality traits she showed so far, and that was enough to clear his mind of any thoughts he considered unneeded. Finally, he turned around and reached out to her with a hand full of bills.

"What is this?"

"If your own wallet is empty, the police may consider that it's some weird scheme, so take this for now. You can't pay me back what you owe me so let's just say that you will have more to pay."

Blue was unsure, but she took the money anyway.

"I will pay you back when I'll win the Pokemon league and become rich." she said while gathering the wallets from the ground.

"No, wait... You can pay me back before that. In fact, as soon as you can would be the best..."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." she responded while hiding the wallets in her bag.

"And what was that about winning the Pokemon league?"

"I'll win. So if we meet in a battle, prepare to lose." she said with a confident smirk "Anyway, I'll better go find a police station. Come, Tori."

The girl and her Squirtle started running in the direction of the broken fence through which they arrived.

"Wait...!" Green reached out with his hand as if trying to stop her.

"Goodbye!"

She was already gone.

"I... I didn't even get to introduce myself... And I don't know her name. I think I just made a horrible mistake by letting a stranger run off with my money." after saying that, he proceeded to lightly punch himself in the side of the head "Stupid, stupid, stupid."

. . .

"Where to put this?"

"I told you that you don't need to help me, Red." the sailor replied while seeing that the boy was carrying a rather big package "If you drop that, I'm gonna be the one that gets into trouble."

"But if I help you out, you can use that time to look out for any suspicious types."

"The most suspicious one here is you."

"Well, that's just not very nice."

Both of them started laughing, but had to stop when Michael realized that Red was about to fall over because the weight of the package was too much for him. He grabbed the other end in time and helped the boy put it on the ground.

"See? This is what I was talking about."

Red scratched the back of his head while laughing nervously at the sight of Michael's irritated face. Both of them turned their attention towards a person whom they noticed approaching.

"Watch out." said the sailor while stepping forward "It's still 2 hours till the cruise so this one may very well be a criminal."

Red ignored the warning and ran towards the person. He turned his head around midway and said "You really should work on not being so quick to judge. This is no criminal."

"Red." declared the new guest.

"Nice to see you again, Green. I guess we are finally acquaintances."

"The pleasure is mine. Are you also gonna attend the auction. I didn't take you for someone who is into these kind of parties but I guess the looks can be deceiving."

"No, no, no." Red responded while moving his hand from side to side "You need to get a ticket and only rich or well-known people received them. I just want to take time admiring it from the outside."

"How about admiring it after going aboard?" Green asked.

"Didn't you listen to me? You need a... a..." the boy couldn't finish his sentence after seeing that Green was holding 2 tickets in his hand "Where did you get these?!"

"That's not important. What's important is I don't have anyone to give this second ticket to. Well... there might have been one other person but... So, do you want one?"

"Of course!" he answered while quickly grabbing one of the tickets.

During their conversation, Michael managed to walk over.

"So he's your friend?"

"Not yet." answered Red "But now I have a ticket so I can go on the cruise!"

"That's great news. You still have time but there is no rule that says you can't board the ship earlier."

"Shall we go?" Red turned to Green.

"Yeah. Goodbye." he bowed his head slightly to the sailor.

"Bye."

"I will be busy during the cruise as part of the security but, as long as it's nonalcoholic, we can get a drink together."

"For sure!" Red replied before heading in the direction of the ramp.

. . .

Finally aboard the ship, the teenagers were slowly touring the weather deck. While walking and staring at the docks below, Red accidentally bumped into someone. It was an old man in a dark blue uniform with several badges and plates on it.

"I'm sorry!" the boy yelled while bowing as low as he could.

"Don't worry. Nothing happened." the man had a soothing voice "Hm? I made sure to go through the names of all our guests and check their photos on the internet but I don't recognize either of you."

"I got the tickets from Bill, the famous scientist." explained Green.

"Oh. From that man? Okay then. If you see any suspicious activity, make sure to notify somebody from the securi..." the man stopped because he thought he saw something hiding around a corner.

Passing the boys, he ran over. Without a word, both of them decided to follow him. When they caught up to him, they saw that he was holding somebody up by grabbing on their shirt. They quickly realized that it was a member of Team Rocket and 2 other were standing behind him.

"Let me go, you old fart! Don't you know who we are?!" the criminal shouted while struggling to get out of the man's grasp.

"Go, Koffing!" one of his companions released his Pokemon which rammed it's body into the member of the crew, causing his hand to loosen.

The trio from Team Rocket took a quick step back, before the one who was released pointed his finger forward while saying "You better give it up! If you don't want anyone else getting hurt, you will give us all the items that are up for action!"

"That's ridiculous! As the captain of this ship, I will never agree to that!"

"Aren't you Roger?"

"Huh?" the Team Rocket member in front reacted to hearing his name by looking at the 2 boys.

When he realized that the owner of the voice was Red, his legs became weak and he fell on the his bottom. Once on the deck, he started crawling backwards with a terrified face.

"What's going on?" asked him one of the other ones.

"You know this guy?" Green looked at Red.

"Kinda. I beat a group of Team Rocket members at Mt. Moon. He was one of them."

"And you didn't catch him?"

"What? No. There was a lot of them, so even if I tried, some would escape. Why do you care?"

"I... Eeh... It's not worth explaining. Anyway, we should get rid of these 3."

"Get rid of?" Roger said while swallowing saliva with fear.

"Don't be so full of yourself!" said another one while also releasing his Koffing.

"Go, Nidorina!" Green called out his Pokemon.

"I'll help you! Go, Oddish!"

"There's really no need to."

But the 2 Pokemon were already standing side by side. The one belonging to Red was half asleep, trying not to close its eyes, while Green's Pokemon was flexing its muscles.

"Okay!" Roger finally managed to get up and call out his own Koffing "I have to be strong! For Alex! He's been dealing with that incident for quite some time. He's so busy that he doesn't even have time to insult me. We have to make use of this time by stealing the items for the auction! Are you with me?"

The other 2 nodded in agreement.

"Sleep Powder."

"What?!" Roger yelled in surprise.

Before any of the Team Rocket members had a proper chance to do something, all of their Koffings fell on the deck sound asleep.

"Double Kick." Green ordered in a rather nonchalant manner.

Nidorina used her hind legs to kick two of the Koffings with force so great that they flew off the ship and into the sea. Afraid that the same was going to happen to his Pokemon, Roger quickly picked it up.

"You may have won today, but the next time we meet, it will be us who will be..."

Before he had a chance to finish, Green gave another command "Poison Sting."

Trying to avoid the poisonous needles fired from Nidorina's mouth, all 3 members of Team Rocket run towards the railing and jumped off. After the trainers didn't hear the sound of them for a couple seconds, they recalled their Pokemon.

"Oooh! That was amazing! Who knew that some of my guests would be such strong Pokemon trainers?!" the captain yelled out while patting both of them on their arms.

"Uuh... Thanks." Red replied with an embarrassed face.

"After seeing your abilities, there are 2 things that I want to talk about with you. First is an award for helping me."

"We don't really need anything." Red answered.

"Nonsense! How about you, boy? The award is a rather amazing Pokemon I caught recently." he turned to Green.

"Sound interesting. But what is the other thing you wanted to talk about?"

The smile faded from the man's face as he adjusted his tie and hat.

"This is a serious matter. As you know, there are many valuable items put up for auction that will take place in the evening. The one that's expected to sell for the highest price is the legendary Crystal Eye, a gem that's said to show the owner a glimpse of the future."

"That' can't be true." said Red.

"What does this have to do with us?" asked the other boy.

"If even some weak fools like these Team Rocket members managed to get through our security, we will have no chance if "he" really comes. That's why wanted to enlist your help as part of the security during the cruise."

The teenagers looked at each other with confused expressions before they turned to the captain and simultaneously asked "Who is "he"?"

* * *

Even though I enjoy writing, this chapter was kind of a chore. This was the one where I had to definitely put in everything I planned for it, since the next one is the special chapter. But this one already lays "seeds". I want to have at least some plot points that can go for like a year as, I guess, part of world building? I just don't want to make the story seem to focus on only one thing. So there are some things from this chapter and from the special chapter that I will go back to. It's not really a spoiler. It's more like, me reminding you to pay attention to details, or even to eventually remind me of stuff if I forget about some plot points myself, hahaha.

This chapter's name is of course a reference to the band Green Day(I just checked if I actually know any of their songs and I think there are 2-3 I recognize) and to how Green appears throughout the whole chapter for the first time. He also got to debut 2 of his Pokemon. Nidorina is there for the same reason as Jigglypuff(which is a secret), but I'm not sure why I gave him a Hitmonlee(I thought it was a Hitmonchan). I'm satisfied by his interactions with both Blue and Red. Red and Blue have a friendly relationship where they like to make fun of one another, Red and Green can sometimes be sarcastic towards each other but they have that air of mutual respect and Green somehow makes Red act more mature, while Green and Blue is a case of opposites attracting each other. They got of the wrong foot and Blue has too much pride to forgive that, which agitates Green yet somehow they get along quite well.

We also had our first double battle so that was cool, but because it took me a long time to write, I had to be kinda mean to Roger's group.

And finally, we can talk about the upcoming special chapter. I will ha... Wait a moment. I think here's someone in my house. I'll try to quietly get up and chedlsjiuedgfui.

Excuse me for that. I didn't want to knock the poor guy out but I just could not wait to meet you. I came to announce that I will steal the Crystal Eye at exactly 9 p.m. Look out for my awesome entrance.

This was me,

Phantom Venin

Red. Team: Eevee, Charmander, Pikachu, Oddish.

Badges: 2

Green. Team: Ivysaur, Nidorina, Jigglypuff, Hitmonlee.

Badges: 2

Blue. Team: Bellsprout, Squirtle, Zubat.

Badges: 2

Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.

Angie. Team: ?, ?.

Peter. Team: ?, ?, ?.

Oww. My head hurts. What was that? Phantom Venin? I created that asshole and he dares to hit me with a lamp? Well, at least I manage to get to 50.000 words so there's something to celebrate.


	14. Special Chapter 1: Phantom Venin and the Crystal Eye.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red and Green take on the infamous Phantom Venin and the situation quickly gets out of hand.

Before you start reading this chapter, I advise that you copy the whole thing and put it in a word document to keep track of where you left off, since it's over 30,000 words long. Unless you've got some other way to deal with long texts. Then you're free to use that. I'm just trying to help. Also, be sure to take breaks when reading. I don't want you to sue me if your eyes go bad(issa joke).

* * *

 

Pokemon Tales: Red Special Chapter 1: Phantom Venin and the Crystal Eye.

Somewhere on the vast sea, a small sailboat was slowly drifting through the waves. The only passenger was a dark haired man, who could be anywhere from 15 to 30 years old, wearing swimming shorts, a straw hat and sunglasses. Although he was enjoying the sun, his mind and face were buried in a notebook which contained his plans for the day.

"Maybe I should change this part? It sort of depends on how much luck I'll have." his voice was very soft and had some kind of accent, although it was hard to tell where it came from.

He stopped for a short moment while tapping his chin with a pen until he lifted his head to the point where he was looking backwards "What do you think?"

The one he was talking to was a Clefable who at that moment walked out of the cabin carrying a tray with two drinks with straws and small umbrellas. The Pokemon gently put them on a short table which was right next to the deckchair the man was lying on before looking into the notes which were actually drawings, in case the man ever needed a help from his partners, like in that moment. After looking through a couple pages, Clefable shook his head to the sides.

"So you think it's good? Maybe I should stop worrying. We still have half a day till the whole thing. Hmm?"

After putting aside the notebook and lifting his sunglasses to the forehead, the man stood up and walked over to the rear of the boat. He focused his eyes on an object that was moving through the waves as slowly as his boat. After it got a little closer, he could finally begin to tell that it was the thing he suspected, an iceberg.

"I know these things appear around Seafoam Islands but I didn't expect to see them this close to the mainland. It's a good thing the sea is calm and the weather is clear, so we'll have no problems avoiding it."

The Clefable who stood beside him, nodded, while finishing his drink. The man heard a weird sound and turned his gaze towards the Pokemon who was covering his mouth.

"Was that a hiccup?"

Clefable tried to deny by shaking his head to the sides, but when another sound came from his mouth, his trainer sighed while grabbing the bridge of his nose.

"I told you not to add any alcohol. You better get yourself sorted out before the evening... And get me a new drink."

Meanwhile, aboard the St. Anne, Red and Green were visiting the captain in his quarters. After being handed a piece of paper, the boy in the hat was sitting in a chair and reading through it with the other one bending over and leaning on the same chair to also get a good look at the message written on the paper.

"Sooo... Who is this Phantom Venin?" Green asked while looking up at the captain.

"I guess you haven't heard of him since a lot of this stuff is kept under wraps. In short, he's a highly skilled thief who specializes in stealing items that are said to be priceless; anything from a precious rock like the Crystal Eye to works of art to fossils." the captain explained.

"And he announced that he's going to steal this particular gem." Green said to himself while rubbing his chin.

"That's one of the interesting things about him. Even though there are many other valuable items up for auction, if he declared that he's gonna still this one, we can be sure that the rest are safe from his hands." explained the captain.

"You said "one of the things". Is there anything else?" asked Red.

"Yes. Although it may sound weird, it seems he's a highly skilled magician and a master of disguise..." the captain answered.

"Well, that's not that..."

Captain interjected Red by continuing "...and he can fly."

A silence fell over the room for a couple seconds during which the teenagers were trying to process what they just heard.

Finally Green spoke up "Could you repeat?"

"Yeaaah. What do you mean by that?"

"He has wings."

Again, everyone went quiet for a short time before Red stood up and slammed his hands on the desk "Are you joking around?!"

"No, no. I'm just saying what I heard. Maybe he's just using some mechanical wings but I don't want to omit anything that could help in stopping him."

"Okay." the trainer calmed down "Do you want us to catch him?"

"As long as the Crystal Eye is safe, I don't care if he gets away."

"But won't he come for it again?" Green wondered.

"It seems that it's against his rules. Once, when trying to steal an ancient vase, he hurt his leg and couldn't run away with it, so he left it there and never returned again."

The captain reached into a drawer in his desk to take out a pipe and some tobacco. Before lighting them, he also searched for a pokeball which he put in front of himself.

"This is the Pokemon I was talking about earlier. Take it."

Green walked over to the desk, picked up the ball and attached it, in the same manner as the other ones, to his belt.

"Now... If you agree to help me deal with this Phantom Venin situation, as long as I'll know that you gave it your all, there will be a monetary prize in it for you. A bigger one, if you manage to protect the Crystal Eye."

"I'm up for it." stated Green.

Both of them turned their eyes to Red. Although he felt a little pressured, he already made his decision earlier, so he just put his thumb up as a sign of agreement.

"Marvelous!" the captain yelled while standing up, with a huge cloud of smoke escaping his mouth "Although the Phantom announced that he's gonna strike at 9, the auction stars at 7 so I want you to keep watch from that point onward. Until then you are free to do whatever you want. Each ticket has a room assigned to it in case you want to rest, clean up, change clothes or whatever..."

The captain stopped for a short while and looked like he was thinking about something.

"Do either of you have a suit?"

"I'm afraid not." responded Green.

"There's still almost over an hour before we depart so I'll quickly send someone to go rent you suits."

Green smiled lightly "You don't trust us enough to go by yourself?"

"Hmm. I'm not sure..." the captain said while walking in their direction, before swiftly pinching both of their faces.

Red fell down from surprise, while Green just turned his smile into a frown, waiting for the man to let go of his face.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just had to make sure these weren't really well made masks."

After that, both of the boys slowly backed off towards the door.

.   .   .

Not too much later, somewhere in Vermilion City, Blue was stretching her arms while exiting a police station with a satisfied expression on her face. She looked into her bag. After the whole ordeal she had to go through, she made a decision to store her wallet in her inventory pad and only take it out when necessary. Since each pad had a password, most thieves wouldn't bother with trying to steal them anyway.

She immediately went against her new rule and took out her wallet which was more filled than ever. Aside from the money she got from Green, she got a lot more as a reward for bringing a couple policeman to the alley with the 2 still unconscious criminals, and also from a couple people who were grateful for getting back their stolen wallets.

"Okay. I have so much money that I should plan ahead what I'm going to do. Maybe with this I can afford to take care of more than 6 Pokemon. Or maybe I should send it to my parents?"

While pondering on what to do, she overheard a stylishly dressed couple who were just passing her and talking about the best meal they ever had and the best view they ever saw. Interested, she quickly followed them and carefully blocked their path.

"Excuse me. I overheard what you were talking about. What is this place with great food and views?"

"It's that building over there." one of them pointed to the tallest building in this part of the city "There's a really famous chef working there and you can see the city, the port and the sea. But... Forgive me for saying this but you don't look like someone who could afford to eat there."

A vein immediately appeared on Blue's forehead. It took all of her power from saying or doing something mean. Instead, she decided to walk away as quickly as possible for those peoples sake.

"I'll show them. I'm gonna go there and have the most expensive thing they serve!" overcome by rage, Blue completely stopped thinking on how to rationally spend her money.

.   .   .

"What is going on here?"

The mysterious man on the boat was not too happy with what was going. Even though he wanted to spend the day by relaxing before what he planned for the evening, he had to put multiple blankets on his body to shield himself from the cold. He was behind the boat's wheel trying to avoid a 6th or 7th iceberg in about an hour. He finally seemed to pass all of them, but because of that he went further into the sea than he planned and had to find a way to turn back without having to go around the icebergs yet again.

His mind wandered off towards Seafoam Islands. The legends told about a mythical bird who resided there and would sometimes create these icebergs to try to scare off potential threats. But the number was never that high. If one believed in the existence of the legendary bird, it was scary to think what was so threatening that it had to go these lengths to protect itself.

"I hope that none of these icebergs get in the way of our plan."

His words fell on empty ears because his Clefable was still in a daze from the alcohol it consumed.

.   .   .

Aboard the St. Anne, Red was visiting each of the places available to passengers one by one, not staying in any too long because he felt that it would be better to enjoy them with somebody. Green wasn't with him because he wanted to get himself acquainted with his new Pokemon in case it could prove to be exact monster needed to stop Phantom Venin.

After getting a good look at one of the pools from the balcony, Red slowly lifted his head while closing his eyes to focus better on a scent that was just noticed by his nose. Following it, he quickly arrived at one of several restaurants scattered throughout the giant ship. It was decorated with sculpted columns, both the walls and the floor were red with gold markings. The tables were made from sturdy, polished wood as were the chairs which additionally had a red, soft material for the seats and backs, which Red could attest to after trying one of them. He was holding onto the chair with both hands while testing how hard would it be to tip it over with him on it, at least until another person arrived from the kitchen.

"Hey, you!"

The voice was so startling, that Red almost actually fell off his chair, but he somehow managed to grab onto the table and stop himself. After letting out a sigh of relief, he looked in the direction of the open doors, which were right next to the counter behind which was a window with a look into the kitchen. The person that called him was a tanned, young adult with a his hair in a ponytail, in a chef's uniform.

"Yes?" Red asked hesitantly.

"I don't care if you are some kind of prince, but if you break something, you will have to pay for it." he responded in a rather nonchalant manner.

"Prince?" the teenager was confused "Far from that. I'm just a normal guy. Well... The captain hired me and my friend to help with protecting the Crystal Eye."

"The Crystal Eye? Yeeeah... I have no idea what that is. Is that one the things that's gonna be sold at the auction?"

"Uhm." he said while nodding "You really don't know about it?"

"Well, I care about doing my job. It's not like I could afford anything they're gonna sell, so I'd rather focus on what I can do. But... a hired help? Interesting."

"Is it?"

"Maybe..." the main said very quietly while glancing towards the kitchen through the door which was kept open by his foot "In the last week, about 20 of the cooks either called in sick, retired or got into an accident. There's around 150 of us on this ship, but it's still a surprisingly high number. We had to quickly get replacements. 3 of those replacements are currently working under me and they seem almost like complete rookies so the only thing they are good for is washing the dishes."

"You sound like a person who takes a lot of pride in what they do." Red blurted out, before a thought came over him that it may have sounded rude.

The man laughed when he saw the boy cover his mouth "Don't worry. I sometimes get too full of myself, true, but you should judge whether I'm too prideful by trying some of my food. We have started preparing a soup and seafood but they're not gonna be ready until quite some time, but we were actually eating a lunch, since we're gonna be constantly busy after all the passengers get on the ship. You can try some of it if you like."

"That'd be great."

Soon after that, the chef and the trainer were both enjoying their own bowl of macaroni with cheese, scallops and a vegetable sauce, while telling various stories from their travels. It was when they were about to finish eating when Green arrived in the restaurant, frantically looking around. When his eyes fell on Red's face, he quickly walked over with quite an irritated expression on his face.

"Oh! Green! You should try some of this pasta!" Red shouted happily, but his expression quickly changed to a cautious one when he realized that for some reason the other boy was angry at him.

"I told you that it would only take me a couple minutes and that I wanted you to want and yet you went by your own and I had to search half the ship to find you!" Green burst out.

The chef, not happy that he was interrupted during his meal, looked like he was chewing on something sour, while covering his ears from the deafening yells.

"Sorry, sorry. I was just kinda bored. But you found me, so you should eat with us."

Still annoyed Green started to talk "I don't wanna eat any..."

"He can't." the captain interrupted him.

"I can't?!" Green jumped back in surprise.

Even though he just announced that he didn't want to, it came as a shock that he would have been refused either way when Red already ate a meal.

"We made enough for the people working in this restaurant and each of us gave a little of his portion so that Red could have a meal, so there's nothing left. Sorry. But if you want, you can come back here later. Since you're hired by the captain, I guess that to a rational point, you can get free meals."

"Oh. Okay. Then I'll be back!" Green shouted while triumphally pointing a finger at the chef.

"Why are you making such a big deal out of this?" Red wondered.

"Because I want some satisfaction! You got a delicious meal. And what did I get? Nothing."

Red looked at him for a while, unsure of how to cheer him up, until he arrived at a conclusion "But you got something. That new Pokemon of yours."

"Oh, yeah." Green seemed to have forgotten completely about the prize he got from the captain until that point "Here."

Red was completely dumbfounded by the fact that his rival put the ball with, what he assumed to be, his new Pokemon, in front of Red.

"Wait. What is going?!"

Green didn't look angry or sad anymore. He just looked devoid of any hope and dreams. The boy slowly started walking towards the exit while hunched over. Red got up as fast as he could and after bowing and thanking the chef, and picking up the pokeball, followed his friend outside of the restaurant.

"Green, wait up! Why did you leave your new Pokemon?"

"I..." Green hesitated "You can have it. If you don't want it, just release it. I'm just afraid that if the captain played a joke like that on me, the prize we'll be getting for this security job will be another scam."

"Is it a weak Pokemon?"

"See for yourself."

"Okay." he said as he lifted the hand with the ball, ready to throw it.

"Wait, wait! We need to get to a pool or something first!" Green quickly stopped him while frantically waving his hands.

"Uh? Okay?"

After a couple minutes of walking, they managed to reach the pool that Red saw before.

"Is here good?" Red asked while squatting to test the temperature of the water with his hand.

"Yeah. I don't think passengers would be happy if you let a Pokemon swim in the pool so it's good that you see it before they start getting on."

"Alright." Red stood up and reached for the pokeball again "Go, whatever you are!"

From the red beam of light appeared a Pokemon that was mostly of that same color. A fish that looked disoriented by where it was. After seeing Green, it started swimming around in circles as a show of happiness.

"It looks happy to see you. Why don't you like it?"

"Don't you know what that is? It's a Magikarp. Although it has the possibility of evolving into a really strong Pokemon, training it takes a lot of time and work. In nature, it can learn only weak or downright useless moves."

Red looked a little taken aback by these words but tried to stay positive "He can't be that bad."

"If you don't believe me, check your Pokedex."

"Well... Alright." Red responded before reaching into his pocket for the device "Hmm. Magikarp. Fish Pokemon. Water type. Moves that it can learn are Splash, Tackle and Flail. Oh. Here's a description..."

"Well? What does it say?" Green asked him with a rather smug look on his face.

"It says that it's horribly weak, very unreliable, pathetic and virtually worthless in terms of speed and power..."

"See?"

"No. There must be something good here! Wait! Here!"

"What is it?"

"It says that it can survive in any body of water, no matter how polluted it is. It also says that a Magikarp living for many years can leap a mountain using Splash! How about that?"

Green was astounded by how Red would try to find the best even in the worst "That first thing doesn't seem like it would be actually useful. And the second one just sounds like a made up story."

"Watch!"

"Watch what?"

"I'll prove you wrong. I'm gonna take this Magikarp and make him strong. The strongest of any water Pokemon."

Green stood there for a second, thinking about something before he spoke up again "How about we make a deal? If we fight against each other in the Pokemon League, we'll both use our water Pokemon as the first ones. I don't have one but I'm sure I'll catch something stronger than this one before then. How about it?"

Green reached out with his right hand, and Red responded by shaking it with his own.

"Deal!" they both shouted so loud that the Magikarp who was enjoying himself in the water, jumped a little in surprise.

"Magikarp, from now on, Red will be your trainer." Green said while using a thumb to point to his friend.

The fish Pokemon turned its gaze towards its new partner, unsure of what was happening but after seeing the boy's smile, it immediately felt some kind of attachment to him, to the point that it jumped out of the water and started to happily splash around at its new trainer's feet. The boys panicked for a while before they both arrived at a surprising conclusion.

"It doesn't need water to survive?" Green's face was a mix of fear and astonishment.

"It seems so." said Red before reaching down to gently pet his new friend.

The boys were staring at it with spaced out expressions until they were taken out of their trance by a female voice "Uuuh... Like, what are you guys doing?"

They decided to look up and saw a girl who seemed to be a little older than them. She wore denim shorts, a white tank top with a bikini top visible underneath, elevated sandals and a designer bag. She had her blonde hair tied up in a bun and had gold-rimmed sunglasses on her forehead. Both of them considered her to be fairly attractive but were too busy, with thinking about how they would explain themselves, to focus on her good looks.

"Uh... So it seems the other passengers started getting on." Red stated the obvious.

Green decided to take control of situation by asking her "Are you here for the auction?"

"Like, why should I tell you that?"

Having his strategy completely annihilated, Green stood there with an open mouth, frantically trying to come up with something to say to that.

"No, I'm not." the girl also seemed to feel awkward so she decided to speed up their conversation "My father wants to get that crystal something or other for his collection. He made me go with him, so to make him angry I've decided to spend the whole day by myself... Like, maybe I'll try hitting on hot guys?"

Red grabbed Green's shoulder, afraid that he didn't know what would happen if this kept progressing. He thought that his rival would be better at this kind of stuff, but they were both similarly helpless.

The girl smirked deviously before adding "Tell me if you see any."

By saying that, she wanted to imply that a bunch of weirdos playing around with a fish by the pool was not worthy of her attention. After stroking her own ego in such a way, she quickly left by passing them both on her way to another pool, since she felt disgusted by the thought of swimming somewhere where a Magikarp swam before.

"Magikarp, return for now." Red called back his Pokemon, before both he and Green, without needing to exchange words, decided to return to their room in an awkward silence.

.   .   .

"Will that be all, Madam?"

A middle aged waiter with a waxed moustache arrived at Blue's table when he saw that she finished her second serving of the most expensive dish they had at the restaurant. Blue was taken out of her zone where she tried to forever save that amazing taste in her memory, knowing that she probably won't get many chances to eat something like that again.

"Ah. Sorry. I mean... Yes. You can bring the check."

"Right away." he said, while taking a little bow, before leaving.

Blue, not completely aware of how high class restaurants worked, decided to stand up to stretch her legs a little after being in her chair for almost an hour. Although it was comfortable, for her it was too much. She felt like she would sink in the comfort. While walking around, she noticed a transparent door in the high windows which surrounded the room. She was so consumed by her meal that she didn't have a chance to get a good look at the outside. The view from the balcony surrounding the tall round building was breathtaking. The people on the streets below looked almost like insects, but what got her attention the most was the sea. Thinking about how big it was, she started remembering her home which was on the other side of that body of water. When she felt a tear run down her cheek, she decided to turn her attention to something else.

She noticed a commotion at the port but couldn't quite tell what was going on. Thankfully, there were free tower viewers to both sides of her. She used one of them to look at the situation in the port. The commotion was around a giant ship, the biggest one she ever saw. There were plenty limousines and other expensive cars arriving there. She tried to zoom in as much as she could, and although she could tell there were many people there who were dressed in fancy clothes, she couldn't really tell their faces, so she wouldn't know if there were some celebrities there that she liked. She looked up a little to view how the deck looked. She blinked quickly and jumped backwards a little.

"No. That couldn't be him. But it seemed like that person had..."

"Madam?" she heard behind her.

"Ah! Yes?" she answered while turning around.

"I brought your check." the waiter said while handing her a booklet with a piece of paper inside.

"Right away. I..."

"Does something seem to be the problem?"

"Is this price right?"

"It should be. Well... I never saw anyone asking for two servings of the most expensive dish we have but if you can't pay there will be..."

"Of course I can pay it!" she got offended yet again "...It's just that I will use up everything besides what I got from Green..." she added quietly.

.   .   .

Red and Green were walking through the corridors of the ship. After spending some time in their room, they agreed on finding another pool and relaxing there for an hour or two.

"Shut up."

"I'm just trying..."

"I said shut up, Red." Green was quickly growing impatient.

"I'm just trying to say that I thought you would be better with girls."

"You weren't doing so hot out there either. You spent like the last hour crying into that pillow."

"I wasn't crying!" Red stuck out his chest, feeling that it would make him seem more respectable "And besides... You look like the kind of guy who could sweet talk girls and they would fall for it."

Green stopped and looked at Red, not sure if he should be proud or offended "What does that even mean?"

"I... With those purple pants, the collared shirt, the necklace and the wristbands... You look kinda like a douche."

"What?!"

"I said "look like". I didn't say that you are one."

Green threw his hands up in the air "Unbelievable."

For the rest of the way, Red tried to apologize by praising Green's battling skills and personality but his rival wasn't so easy to convince. He finally cheered up a little when they arrived at their destination.

"I haven't been on a holiday in a long time." he stated.

"Why would you need a holiday? You're young. Holidays are for old people who need a break from work."

"I don't know what you've been doing with your life before becoming a trainer but I spent all my time helping my grandpa or studying Pokemon."

"Oh. I was a fisherman."

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me. You know..."

"Yes?"

"...This is the longest amount of time we spent together and I'm actually beginning to think I hate you."

"What?!" Red jumped back in surprise, causing him to bump into a person who was walking by and making them fall on the floor.

"Oh. Sorry. Let me help you." he said while bending down and reaching out with his hand which was promptly slapped away.

"I don't need your help, you pleb!"

The person got up. It was a fairly handsome man, with small, wide, green eyes and blonde, wavy hair combed to one side, who looked around 20 years old. He was wearing red pants and a red vest with a white, long-sleeved shirt underneath and a crimson tie around his neck. His black shoes were polished to the point where one could almost see their reflection in them. It was surprising that he wasn't bothered by the hot weather in that get-up.

"You will pay for your insolence! 20,000 to be exact." he said with a voice full of hostility.

"Whaaa-?" Red was visibly confused, while Green was standing back to see how the situation would play out.

"Didn't you hear me? I demand recompensation for hurting me and for getting my clothes dirty."

"But you don't look hurt and the floor is clean." Red stated the truth.

"That doesn't matter now, does it?"

Red turned around to his friend "Is this guy some kind of idiot?"

Green just lifted his hands, showing that he was just as clueless as to what was taking place.

"Wait." the man grabbed his panicked face with one of his hands as if he was trying to calm down his breath "You don't know who I am?"

Red just shook his head to the sides while Green lifted his hands yet again.

"Oh, the tragedy! I'm the one and only son of the king of the flower kingdom, Fleurland. I'm prince Jon Quille Laiteron! Not recognizing me doesn't excuse your insolence!"

"Okay." Red answered, before starting to walk away seeing as he was getting bored by the whole situation.

"Hold up! How dare you ignore me! I demand satisfaction!"

Green also started walking away, hoping to find a good place by the pool but before leaving he said "It's not like he has such amount of money, idiot. If you want to be satisfied you should beat him a Pokemon battle or something.."

"That's it!" the prince shouted while hitting the open palm of one of his hands with a closed fist formed by the other.

He took a few quick steps to get in front of Red and pointed a finger at him in a rather exaggerated manner "I challenge you to a duel! We'll both use one Pokemon each. If I win, after this cruise is over, you will work in the flower kingdom, taking care of the stables, until you are able to pay what you owe me!"

"And if I win?"

"Well, that won't happen, but you can ask for anything you wa..."

"You'll change your name to Idiot Prince."

"Wait-What?"

"So? Can we start?"

"Of course. As I said, there are no chances of you winning so I don't care about your demands."

The prince walked away so that they both next to the pool but at the opposite ends of it. Realizing what was happening, most people decided to move away to the other sides of the pool. Many of them became interested in the conflict and were watching with anticipation.

"The pride of the kingdom! The steed of kings! Go, Gallop!"

The Pokemon commanded by the prince was a Rapidash, but what Green immediately noticed was that its flames weren't their natural color, instead being dark gray. Red also realized that there was something wrong with how the Pokemon looked after he checked its data in his Pokedex.

"Why is it different?"

"It's one of the extremely rare, shiny Pokemon. The color of his flames doesn't influence his abilities in any way, but he's still the fastest Rapidash in the whole kingdom. Now, enough of talking. Call out your Pokemon so that we can get this over with."

"Okay."

"Charmander and Oddish would be bad match ups. Unless he has a fifth Pokemon his only choice is to go with Eevee. This way it'll become a battle of speed." Green was analyzing his rival's options under his breath.

"I choose Magikarp!" announced Red.

The fish Pokemon appeared out of its pokeball and started happily jumping around on the deck. Some people started laughing at Red's choice. Jon Quille wanted to join them but managed to stop himself because he didn't want to humiliate his opponent more than it was needed.

"Red, what are you doing? Just because he's a water Pokemon doesn't mean that he has any advantage! This isn't the time to try to prove something!" Green was getting annoyed by Red's nonchalant behavior.

"Don't worry. I never go into a battle without a plan."

Unbeknownst to either Red or Green, one of the people who were watching the whole situation was the girl they met earlier that day. At first she didn't care since she was on the opposite side of the pool, sunbathing in her bikini and with her hair down, but since people started gathering near where she was, there was too much shadow for her to get a tan and the noise of cheering and laughing also didn't help. That's why she decided to stand up and see what the whole commotion was about.

"It's those fish people. Hmm... That other guy... He looks like someone I should like try to talk to. After he beats that other guy."

"Will you be our judge, Green?" Red asked his friend.

"I... Alright. But you better win this." he answered while reluctantly standing next to a rail and rising his hand into the air "Fight!" he yelled while swinging that hand down.

"Flame Charge!" the prince didn't want to give his foe any time to react.

Rapidash's flames began to envelop all of his body besides the hoofs as he ran towards the fish Pokemon. Green moved as far back as he could to avoid getting burned. Meanwhile, Red waited patiently for an opportunity.

"Splash!"

After receiving his command, Magikarp quickly jumped a little, only to hit the floor with his tail and use it like a springboard to launch himself high into the air. Rapidash was moving too fast so when his opponent flew through the air and over him, the fire Pokemon couldn't stop itself before hitting the stairs leading to a higher deck. The only thing he could think of doing was to turn off its fire to avoid doing damage to the ship.

As he was about to crush into the stairs, the prince yelled out "Just slide!"

Listening to his trainer, the horse Pokemon turned sideways and while scratching the wooden floor with his hoofs, managed to completely turn himself around and use his hind legs to kick itself off the stairs and begin running in the opposite direction, towards the Magikarp who was still hanging mid-air after his jump. At that speed, Jon was sure that Rapidash would hit its target, but it was too late to activate Flame Charge a second time so he went with a different option.

"Megahorn!"

The horn on Rapidash's head began to glow with a dazzling light. It looked like he was about to impale the fish Pokemon.

"Splash!"

The moment the attack reached him, Magikarp managed to wiggle his body in such a way that it barely scraped his skin. He was still hurt, but he managed to avoid the brunt of the attack and continue on his downward path towards the floor. During the time Rapidash had to run to towards his trainer and comfortably spin around, Magikarp managed to convince himself to get through the pain he felt and assumed what could be interpreted as a fighting stance.

Green was closely observing the fight, trying to think what he would do if he was in Red's position. Meanwhile, his rival seemed busy with something else. Instead of focusing on the Rapidash who was again charging at his buddy, he was looking towards the crowd on the other side of the pool, his face showing that he was in deep thought.

"Okay. This should work." he said to himself before thrusting forward his right hand "Magikarp, attack from the left!"

"Attack?!" Green blurted out in surprise "What is he expecting to happen?"

Magikarp listened to its trainer and attacked in the only way it knew to, by jumping towards the opponent, but in the way it was ordered to, from the side. Without needing any command from Jon, Rapidash knew to fend off the offensive by lowering his head and using his horn to scoop up the opponent. Neither the fire Pokemon nor its trainer could suspect that Red already predicted that response and, to at least some degree, calculated where it would send Magikarp.

"Let's see if this works out." Red whispered "Magikarp, bounce off the floor!"

When the crowd saw that the Pokemon was plummeting towards them, they quickly started running away. The girl the boys met earlier was the only one who didn't get a chance to get to safety because she was knocked over by somebody in the commotion. This caused her to get the first row seat in the spectacle that was about to begin. Right before Magikarp hit the floor in front of her, a weird blue substance, similar to hair gel, enveloped its body. As soon as the Pokemon's body hit the wood, it seemed to disappear. A silence fell over everybody as they were trying to decipher what exactly happened.

The girl was probably the most shocked out of everybody, since she was the closest to Magikarp and still couldn't tell where it disappeared to. She tried to get some clues by looking at Red. She felt her heart speed up and heard the audible sound of her own gulping when she saw that the smile and the eyes of the boy were showing his undeniable confidence. Meanwhile, almost everybody else, including Jon and his Rapidash, were looking around, as if Magikarp somehow hid somewhere and was about to pop up any moment. They weren't that far from the truth. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind hit everybody, making some of them close their eyes. When Jon turned his eyes towards his Pokemon, he saw that it was about to fall to the floor as if it was hit by something, although the Magikarp was still nowhere to be seen. At that point, Green was the first one to figure out what was happening.

"That son of a gun..." he said under his breath while looking at something in the sky.

The girl noticed that and, following his example, also gazed upwards. That didn't help a lot. Instead, she was even more confused when she saw a cloud that seemed to have been pierced by something two times.

"Gallop! Are you okay?!" Jon was so afraid after seeing that his Pokemon was hurt so much that he couldn't begin to stand up, that he ran to him and without caring about being hurt by the flames, began to hug him.

Red looked at that scene for about a second before looking up and muttering "I really hope he'll change his path."

Suddenly, the wind blew again, and almost at the same time, something caused the water in the pool to rise up high above it and to splash everybody around. Having only a fraction of a second to react, the prince somehow managed to place Gallop back in its pokeball. The water fell down, causing what seemed like a short rain. Although some people were yelling in confusion during it all, after the water calmed down, they fell silent again.

"The winner is Red!" announced Green.

After hearing those words, people began to realize, one by one, that what caused the water in the pool to rise was none other than Magikarp. The prince looked at his opponent's Pokemon with a shocked face before realizing that him recalling Gallop, even if it hasn't fainted, meant that lost. The crowd arrived at the same conclusion which was signaled by them starting to loudly cheer for Red and his Magikarp. The teenager kneeled down beside the pool. Seeing that, his partner happily swam towards him. When he was close enough, the boy lifted him up and hugged while praising him "You did a great job!"

Red stopped and put Magikarp on the floor when he realized that Jon came up to him.

"I know that I lost, but even worse than that is the fact that I have no idea how it happened. I... Could you explain?"

"I can do that." stated Green, who was also approaching them.

The prince gave a gesture that was meant to tell "Go ahead."

"Although most Magikarps learn only Tackle and Splash, when trained appropriately, some of them can learn the move bounce. I didn't think about it earlier, but it seems that after getting the Magikarp from the captain, Red studied it and arrived at the conclusion that since the captain deemed it to be a rare Pokemon and it wasn't a rare species, there must have been some other thing about it that was unusual. And the move Bounce was the only logical conclusion. I wonder if it was owned by someone or whether it learned the move in the wild... But that's beside the point. Red predicted where Rapidash would send Magikarp if he attacked it from the side and by saying "bounce of the floor", he hoped that Magikarp would know to use that move. And it did. It flew so high that it parted the clouds." at that point of his explanation, he pointed towards the sky.

The prince just then saw the cloud riddled with holes, although it was beginning to disappear.

"The first time, it hit your Rapidash. After that, you hugged your Pokemon so Magikarp decided to avoid hitting you by landing in the pool. Even with Bounce, it couldn't stop itself after hitting the water. And that's the story."

"I feel so stupid that I didn't realize your plan... It seems like the name "Idiot Prince" will fit me well." Jon lamented over his fate while lowering his head.

"You know I only joked?"

"What?" the prince looked up towards Red from whom came the words.

"There's nothing legal that would mean you would have to change your name after losing to me."

The prince looked offended "It's not about legality! It's about honor! You can't stop me! I will change my name to Idiot Prince the moment we reach land!"

"I... I didn't actually beat you. Your Rapidash was still able to fight. Let's just say that I get to call you "Idiot Prince" and we'll be square. From the beginning, it wasn't about changing your name but about seeing you being humble."

"No!" the prince yelled "I won't change my mind!"

"Gah! I won't change my mind either!" Red was beginning to get worked up.

"Yeah?!"

"Yeah!"

"Then maybe we should settle this in a Pokemon fight!"

"That would be my pleasure!"

Suddenly, both of them stopped and after a few moments of silence, they began laughing aloud. Green smiled at that scene, seeing how similar those two actually were, if one looked past who they were on the outside.

"All this made me hungry again." stated Red.

"Then we should get something to eat together." decided Jon.

"Oh yeah. There's this amazing restaurant here. Hey, Green. You coming with us?"

"Sure. After that whole thing, they'll probably have to clean up this place." responded his rival.

Red sent Magikarp back to his pokeball after praising it once again. As they were getting ready to depart, the three of them felt obliged to wave towards the crowd who were once again cheering them on. After walking into the corridor, all the voices went quiet, so it was all the more surprising when they heard someone shout "Wait!"

All of them turned around and saw the girl from before. She must have ran after them, judging by her unregular breathing. Her face was completely red but it also looked as if she was dead set on something she decided.

"Yes?" asked Red.

"Like, can I come with you?" she asked.

It took all of her power to get through the embarrassment she felt after her harsh judgement of the boys and her newfound admiration for Red. She was averting her gaze, afraid that their eyes would meet.

"Sure." he responded without hesitation.

She looked up, full of joy and ready to say something, but then she noticed that the trainer was pointing towards her body.

"But you should put something on." Red added.

After realizing that she was still wearing only her bikini, she became shy once again, and quickly went into one of the side corridors with only her head sticking out from behind the wall.

"Wait a bit. I'll go get my bag." she said, before disappearing completely.

"Weird girl." commented Jon.

.   .   .

Sometime later, on the same sea, the mysterious man travelling on his own, was beginning to get ready for the evening. He started by putting on a dark purple suit with a top hat in the same color, and gloves and boots in a slightly lighter shade. He also had a cape which was tucked through his belt in such away that it could sway in the wind but wouldn't obstruct what he was about to do next. He lightly patted himself on the back, causing a pair of two blue wings to emerge from under the cape. After checking the pokeballs and a small bag, both attached to his belt, he was ready to take off his sunglasses and replace them with a domino mask in the color of his suit, but with white lenses that hid the color of his eyes.

After looking at some screen inside his boat, he went outside and stretched his arms a little "The wind is good. Now the only thing left is to wait a little bit."

Soon after that, just as he expected, a flock of Farfetch'ds were flying over the area where he stopped his boat. It was the end of summer so the flying type Pokemon living around the coast of Kanto could be expected to begin their flight towards warmer regions. Those that lived more inland wouldn't usually bother with that and would just try to bear the upcoming cold in the next half of the year. Knowing that this would happen, the man analyzed wind patterns since the flying Pokemon could also sense them and use wind currents to speed up their flight. This assured him that some would fly right over him.

"Okay. Let's go." he said and the wings extending from his back immediately began to move up and down, lifting him into the air.

After a short while, he was flying right behind the flock of birds, although making sure that he didn't get in the way of their formation.

At the same time, in the radar room of St. Anne, a group of sailors was keenly observing the various screens, making sure that they could alarm the captain if any abnormality appeared. The one they were on the lookout for was, of course, Phantom Venin.

"I've got something!" one of them announced.

Some of the other ones looked at his screen, while most stayed glued to their own, trying to see what he was talking about.

"It's just a flock of some of Pokemon." stated the highest ranked one "We can't get distracted by stuff like this."

"I'm sorry. This won't happen again." said the one who made the announcement.

If only his boss was careful enough to check up on that unsuspicious flock of birds, he would have seen that the one they were searching for was, in fact, among the said flock.

"We're almost over St. Anne." the thief said, seemingly to himself "It's time for my next trick."

After saying that, he took one of his pokeballs and making sure that it appeared in his hand, which would help hold it up, he called out an Abra. The psychic Pokemon knew the plan, since Phantom Venin went over it several times with each of his Pokemon, but it still turned his head to see his face and make sure that it was the right time. Another reason was to choose a specific location. Realizing what the Pokemon wanted, the man pointed towards a part of the roof that seemed to not have any people watching it and would be easy to get off.

Following his owner's finger, the psychic Pokemon zeroed in the right place and focused his mind. Before the Phantom could tell, he was already standing on the roof, thanks to Abra's Teleportation. It was important to use the bird Pokemon to get closer to the ship since Abra's powers had a limited range, but the psychic Pokemon still executed his role masterfully.

"Great job. Remember that you still have a job to do." the thief said before calling the Pokemon back into its ball.

In a couple quick movements, the criminal took off his mask and folded his top hat before putting them both in his bag. By tapping on his back, he caused the wings to retract under the cape. He took out a couple vials with colorful substances. Just a drop of each of them changed his suit to black, his cape and gloves to white, and his hair to dirty blonde. He took out a small comb and used it to make his hair more slick. He also prepared an artificial petit goatee and a fake mole which he put under his left eye. By doing those things, he made himself look like a famous collector from a faraway land whom he had kidnapped and left under the care of his associates as soon as that person landed in Kanto. Since he was busy with another heist at the same time, he couldn't get his hands at the ticket and had to do the whole thing the hard way.

After checking how he looked in a small mirror in comparison to a photo of the person he was masquerading as, he jumped off the roof. Although he was careful not to be seen by anybody, just as he landed a door opened behind him. From inside came no one other than Red and his companions who were done with their meal, after having to wait for it a long time, and were trying to find something fun to do till the beginning of the auction. Seeing the man in suit kneeling and blocking his way, Red looked rather confused. At the same time, the impostor was getting anxious, thinking that his cover might have just been blown if they saw him jump from the roof.

"Uhh... Could you move?" asked the boy from Viridian City.

"What?" the thief was surprised.

"You're blocking our way." Green spoke up.

"Oh, of course. I was just looking for something I dropped but I already got it." he responded, trying to hide his nervousness, while standing up.

"Oh. Okay then." Red said before passing the man by "Anyway, what do you think we should do now?"

"I want to check on Gallop." answered the prince, who left his Pokemon, at a Pokemon Center located on the ship, before going to the restaurant with others.

"Oh. Then maybe you could like show me your other Pokemon once we're there? I overheard some kid talking about a playground area for Pokemon." said the girl.

"Good idea, Fille." Red responded, having learned her name during their conversation at the restaurant.

After the group left, Phantom Venin stood there for a short while, astonished that he wasn't found out, before he decided to find a place to lay low till the auction.

.   .   .

"Your Pokemon is completely healed."

"Thank you."

Jon took a small bow as he took the pokeball from the nurse. After that, he took a few steps back before throwing it into the air to see his Pokemon. After being released, the Rapidash stood in front of its trainer, with its eyes closed for a short while, before opening them and letting out neigh. The prince stepped forward and started caressing its head without speaking a word. After he was done, he, in the same silent manner, put it back in its pokeball.

"Everything's fine. We can go to that playground area." he said to the rest of the group after turning around.

"Like, how is it that Rapidash's mane didn't burn your hand?" Fille asked, rather curious.

"If it's not in the middle of a battle, Gallop can make it so his flames don't burn anything. Otherwise it would be pretty hard to take care of him. His fire is essentially like normal hair. I groom it every day and trim its mane and tail when they get too big." the prince explained.

After stepping into a room adjacent to the one where the healing machine was placed, they saw that it was a spacious place with fake grass, an area filled with sand, a couple ponds, small fruit trees, pillows, chew toys and various posts and obstacles for flying Pokemon. Here and there were some kids and occasional adults playing with their Pokemon, but the space was mostly empty.

"I guess that most rich people don't bother to own Pokemon." Green commented.

"Well..." Jon wanted to find a good excuse but came up empty-handed "...Yeah. Even in my family, my mother is the only one besides me who has a personal Pokemon. We have mail birds, various Pokemon at the stables, grass Pokemon for preparing herbs and the guards have their own ones but besides that... Everybody in my family has to learn how to ride a Ponyta or a Rapidash. During my training I got so close to Gallop that my father allowed me to keep it as my personal steed. But enough about me. Fille wanted to see your Pokemon."

"Oh, yes. Please do." the girl said while bowing.

She was a little embarrassed by the fact that she was the only one among them that didn't have even one Pokemon.

"Her change in attitude still seems suspicious to me." Green whispered so that only Red could hear him.

"But you have no problem with trusting me."

"Well, yeah. You seem kinda less..."

"Uhh? "Less" what?"

"I don't know. Just "less"."

"Oi." Red said in a louder voice while giving Green a light chop to his chest.

"Like, what are you doing?" Fille asked, and the boys immediately realized that the other two have been staring at them with confused faces.

"Riiight. So... Pokemon. Do you want to see them one by one or..." Red tried to play off the whole thing that just happened.

"If you can, show them all at once." the girl answered.

"Alright." Red replied before he began to detach the pokeballs one by one till he had them all in his hands and could throw them up, releasing all of his Pokemon "Come out, my buddies!"

In one moment, the area around Red was filled by his companions. Fille was quickly looking at them one by one, not having time to focus on any for longer than a short while, since she was interested in all of them. The first thing Eevee did was, of course, he ran to his trainer's leg and started cuddling against it. Oddish was asleep. Pikachu was eyeing up the humans it didn't recognize, with a suspicious expression on his face. Magikarp was jumping around happily while Charmander tried to slowly approach it, curious about who this new arrival was.

"Calm down, everybody." Red ordered them in a nice tone.

After hearing that, all of them besides the sleeping Oddish and the Magikarp, got into a line in front of their trainer.

"This here is a new addition to our group. It's a Magikarp. Make sure to be nice to him."

While Charmander and Pikachu had shown their obedience by lightly nodding, Eevee decided to immediately get acquainted with Magikarp by trying to high five it, but because of the fish's slipperiness, he fell. All of them, including Eevee, found that funny and started laughing.

"Besides wanting you to meet Magikarp, I wanted to show you to our new... friends." Red said while gesturing towards Jon and Fille.

Eevee immediately got up and ran towards the girl who couldn't stop herself from petting it after seeing how cute it was.

When those introductions were done, Green stepped forward while holding all the pokeballs containing his team "Guess it's my turn."

"Go ahead." said Jon, seeing as Fille was still busy with the dog Pokemon.

"Everybody, it's time to take the stage!" Green shouted before releasing his team in the same way as Red did before with his.

The one that stood out the most was Hitmonlee, who did a few spins and kicks in mid-air before landing next to other ones who were calmly waiting on the floor for any potential orders. Ivysaur was quick to realize what was happening. As a sign of that, he gave his trainer a look to make sure. Green nodded, after which Ivysaur slowly let out two vines which travelled to Jon's and Fille's hands to give them his equivalent of a handshake.

"Such good manners." the prince commented during the greeting.

"Y-Yeah." Fille tried to hide that she was a little creeped out by the texture of the vine.

After that, Jigglypuff tried to impress everybody by rolling around but it was not careful enough and didn't notice the sleeping Oddish till it was too late. Not only did it wake him up, but caused it to go flying. Fortunately, Ivysaur was fast enough and caught it with its vines before it hit the floor. Oddish opened its eyes for a couple seconds and looked around before deciding on going back to sleep. Out of the whole group, Nidorina seemed the shyest as she didn't do anything to accommodate the curiosity of Jon and Fille. While the girl tried to convince it to play with her, the prince observed as Charmander approached Ivysaur. They both had something like an air of mutual respect about them.

"What's the meaning behind that?" he asked.

"Both of these Pokemon belonged to my grandpa before we got them so they know each other fairly well. They still haven't fought against one another so I imagine there's a lot of curiosity about who would win. I can't lie. I would also like to learn that." during the last words, Green gave Red a confident smile.

"Do you wanna go?"

"Not today." Green stopped him "Okay, everyone. It's time to go back to your pokeballs."

One by one, Pokemon started disappearing into the spheres. Red started doing the same with his.

"Whaaat?" Fille said in a disappointed voice while holding the sleeping Oddish in her arms.

"We agreed to show you our Pokemon but we can't spend too much time playing around and risk getting them injured." Green explained in a monotone voice as the last of his Pokemon went into its ball.

"Why is that?" Jon was a little confused by that statement.

"I..." Red stopped himself "Wait. Can we talk about this?'"

Green shrugged. Taking that as a "yes", Red gestured for Jon and Fille to get closer, so he could whisper to them.

"The thing is, we were hired as additional security to protect the Crystal Eye from a thief called Phantom Venin."

"Phantom Ven...!" Fille stated, before Red could cover her mouth with his hand.

"I think we are supposed to keep this a secret. I'm not entirely sure. But that's why we have to preserve the strength of our Pokemon. That Phantom guy is supposed to steal the gem at 9 p.m. but we have to constantly be on the lookout for him since he may very well already be aboard. Wait... What's thaaaa... Ewww!"

Red jerked his hand away when he realized that Fille was licking his palm.

"Why did you do that?"

"Like, I wanted you to get it off and my own hands were busy with holding Oddish." she explained, a little annoyed at his disgusted reaction.

"Oh, right. Oddish still wasn't in his ball." Red realized as he was wiping Fille's saliva on his pants, much to Jon's distaste.

"Waaaaait." Fille tried to be as loud as she could be without screaming.

"What is it this time?" Red stopped with a pokeball in his hand.

"Like, can I keep him?" she said while bringing Oddish closer to her face.

"Can you... What? No, you can't keep him!"

"I don't mean for like forever. Just till this cruise is over."

"I..." after looking into her eyes full of hope, Red couldn't bring himself to refuse "I'm probably going to regret this but okay. Just one thing."

The boy walked up to her and tugged on one of Oddish's leaves to wake him up. The Pokemon yawned before looking at its trainer to see what he wanted.

"I want you stay with Fille for now." Red explained while pointing to the girl "If she gets in trouble, you will have to protect her."

Oddish smiled and went to sleep. Fille seemed happy, but the boy wasn't sure if the Pokemon understood what he told him to do.

"We still have a couple hours. Do you have anything else in mind?" Green asked.

"We could go to the restaurant again..." Red pondered with a focused expression.

"How much do you eat anyway?" the prince looked a little afraid.

"What about y..." Green wanted to ask Fille but she was too busy with poking Oddish's face "Okay. I guess I'll decide. I heard that they have bars with pool tables and darts. We can search for one and once we are there, we'll see how it goes from there."

.   .   .

Since the time of the auction was nearing, Red and Green split up from the other two and all of them went to their rooms to get dressed in clothes more suited for the evening party, although Red wasn't sure what that meant in Jon's case. When the boys arrived in their accommodation, they noticed packages on both of their beds. After looking inside, they realized that they contained the suits which captain sent someone to rent earlier in the day. Red immediately started taking off his clothes, beginning with his hat and followed by the jacket.

"Wait up!" Green stopped him.

"Why? What's going on?"

"Have some decency. We may both be males but I don't want to see you in your underwear."

"Wait, what?"

"Go to the bathroom." Green demanded while pointing to the door.

"Okay. Geez."

After a couple minutes, Green was done with getting into his suit. It was a fairly plain, black one but it still made him look good and more fit for the occasion. When Red didn't return for some time, he started worrying about him and decided to knock on the door.

"Are you doing okay?"

"I'm just having problems with my tie. I never wore one."

"Alright. Let me help you." Green said before going inside.

He looked at his friend from feet up to his head, and had to take a step back and grab onto something. Although he wouldn't have ever said it, he was astonished by how natural Red looked in a suit. Added was the fact that Red wasn't wearing his hat and had combed hair.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Green gathered himself, before going over to Red and helping him with the tie "Not too tight?"

"No. I think it's fine." he answered after checking himself in the window "But this still doesn't feel right."

"What do you..."

Before Green could finish, Red put both hands into his hair and messed it up, before reaching for his hat, which was placed on the sink, and putting it on.

"It wouldn't feel right without this."

.   .   .

The boys arrived a little early, but Jon was already waiting for them in front of the auction room, checking his watch. This time, the colors of his clothes were kind of reversed, since he was wearing a white suit with a red shirt underneath. His shoes were also white.

"Did you wait for long?" asked Red.

"No. Don't worry. Besides, there already many people waiting for the doors to open." the prince answered while looking at the crowd gathered around them.

"Wow. That guy over there has like 20 women with him." Red commented.

"18 to be precise." stated Jon "He's Rajul Muhimiun, the king of Rimal Hara Kingdom. In that part of the world it's very common for people to have multiple wives. It's pretty much allowed everywhere but people rarely do it because the law states that each wife, or husband if it's a woman with multiple partners, has to be a citizen of a different region or kingdom. Which means that each of these women had to travel from far away, possibly leaving their families, so they could stay with the king."

"18 wives seems like a scary thought." stated Green.

"Yeah. Even 2 would be too much for me." added Red.

"You want to have a wife?" his rival wondered.

"I mean... I don't have any plans right now but if there's a right time and a right person then yeah."

"Hey guys." a familiar voice interrupted them.

When they looked in the direction from which it came from, they saw Fille, wearing a bright yellow dress, reaching the floor, but with a thigh high slit which left one of her legs completely revealed. The dress was strapless and adorned with a sewn flower. She wore fairly high heels and her hair was stylishly arranged, with a small, silver decoration placed in it. She was holding onto one of Oddish's leaves, carrying him with one hand, and the sleeping Pokemon didn't seem to mind it much.

"You look more beautiful than the fairest flower in Fleurland." Jon commented before placing his lips upon her hand.

"Oh. Thanks." the girl was a little surprised but not dissatisfied with such a gesture, although there was person about whose opinion she cared more "What do you think, Red?"

"It looks nice." he answered while giving her a slight smile.

.   .   .

In another part of the ship, the chef whose restaurant was visited by Red twice that day was getting done with enjoying his cigarette, while admiring the sun which would soon set. He made sure to extinguish it in a nearby ashtray instead of throwing it in the sea, like many of the rich types aboard the ship preferred to do. When he returned to his restaurant, the lights were on but the place was completely empty. That was to be expected since all the passengers went to the auction. He still couldn't just take a break, and had to be ready for anything. But nothing could prepare him for what came next. As he went back into the kitchen, he noticed that it seemed eerily quiet. When he went a little further in, he found most of the people working under him unconscious and tied up. Before he could react in any way, something hard hit him in the head and he collapsed onto the floor.

.   .   .

"Excuse me?"

Blue, who was absorbed in a book, while sitting in the Pokemon Center lobby, had to stop and put a paper bookmark inside before she could look up to see whom the voice belonged to. It turned out to be a young women with a friendly demeanor.

"Yes?"

"I was just wondering if you would like to join us for our weekly movie party."

Blue didn't completely understand that sentence "A what now?"

"It's a get-together organized by Lt. Surge. Each week, anywhere up to 200 people gather together to watch movies which he plays on the side of his Gym. We do a vote a week before and choose one of the movies, while the other one is chosen by Lt. Surge himself."

"I met him earlier today and fought to get the Thunder badge, but I don't really know him well enough... Did he invite me?"

"No. I mean... Not you specifically. But each weak he makes sure to send me to invite any people from out of town who are at the Pokemon Center."

"But..." Blue was still unsure how to feel about it, since she would be going there alone, and wanted to find some excuse not to do it because she didn't want to outright refuse "...Isn't there a curfew? If the movies go too lo..."

"Don't worry about that. The head nurse also will be attending this event, so if it goes too long, she will let you in even after curfew."

Blue was still going in her head over any options, but seeing the genuine hope on the woman's face, she finally broke under pressure and responded "Okay. I'll come."

"That's great. I still have to go around and ask a couple people so let's meet by the front door in about... 8 minutes?"

"Alright." while saying that, Blue tried to put on the best smile she could.

.   .   .

A little later, back on St. Anne, the crowd around the auction room was getting smaller as more and more people were going inside. The place was a lot bigger than one would suspect from the outside. It was arranged in a weird way where it seemed like the only people who got tables to themselves were the richest ones, although they were placed far from the stage where the items for sale were to be presented. Closer to the stage, there was an area with long tables full of food up against the walls, and a big space for people to stand. Multiple waiters were, at any given moment, travelling through that area and offering various drinks to the guests. The place closest to the stage was a couple steps down and had around 10 rows of chairs.

Red and his friends were walking through the room and decided to, for at least some time, stop in the middle part. It made sense to them that if they were sitting somewhere in the front or with Fille's father or Jon's family in the back, they would be slower to react to whatever Phantom Venin had planned.

"Could I interest any of you sirs or madam in a drink?" one of the waiters asked while bowing appropriately in front of their group.

"A champagne, please." Jon was the first to respond.

"Do you have any juice?" Red was not used to those kinds of events, so he was a little afraid to make a fool of himself.

"We do. Apple, orange, grape, peach..."

"Orange is fine." Red stopped the waiter before he could list probably another 20 types of juices.

Fille felt a little doubtful if she should choose what she wanted, not wanting to look bad in Red's eyes. She didn't fully understand why his opinion would matter so much to her, but nevertheless, she let it influence her "For me, just a water."

"I'll take some medium sweet red wine." stated Green.

Everyone besides the waiter, looked at him with a little shock. Thankfully, the man had all the things they wanted on his tray so he handed them out and left, leaving the group in awe of what Green just did.

"Aren't you a little too young for that?" the prince asked.

"Yeah. That's what I've been wondering." added Red.

Green stirred the wine and sniffed it before taking a sip, after which he looked at the astonished faces of his companions "My grandpa wanted me to grow up to be... "a fine man" is what I guess you would say. He let me try various types of alcohol he had in his cellar to make sure that I wouldn't be a person who gets pressured by people to try like a beer or something. And I found out that from all types of alcohol I like wine the best. Now I'm at the point where I won't go to a party to get drunk, but have no problem with drinking some wine every now and then for my enjoyment. I don't think I would become an alcoholic without this type of preparation but I'm thankful to my grandpa anyway."

"Weird. I never tried any alcohol because they all smell weird." stated Red.

"And that's fine." interjected Jon "No one should feel bad about liking or disliking alcohol. I mean, alcoholism isn't a good thing but if people just go about things the right way, everything should be alright."

The whole conversation made Fille feel stupid about getting the water instead of the drink she wanted to order.

.   .   .

While all this was going, the disguised Phantom Venin was right outside of the room, observing the people walking inside, making sure that there was no passengers left wandering the corridors of the ship, who would be able to see what he was planning to do. Although a couple members of security were standing beside the doors of the auction room, the crowd was too big for them to notice him slipping away. The last couple hours weren't wasted. Using a couple tricks connected to his Pokemon's abilities, he managed to gain knowledge needed to execute his plan. After finding a good spot, he squatted down and took out two of his pokeballs. The Pokemon called out by him were a Gastly and a Porygon.

"You know what your roles are?" he asked them.

Porygon gave out a couple short, screeching noises while Gastly nodded.

"Alright. Remember, by my calculations the Crystal Eye will go up for auction at around 9 o'clock. I know that since he received my message, the captain will try to keep things quick and make sure that it's there, since his type of people think that somehow an item at display is harder to steal than one in storage. But, no matter what happens, there is no way for me contact you so just do your part. If the gem is sold too fast, the rest of us will deal with it and what you'll be doing could still help us. That's all. Go."

After hearing him out, Gastly turned invisible and probably flew off while Porygon walked over to an electrical outlet and let itself be sucked into it.

"Now that this is done, I can go to the auction and wait for the right time."

While walking there, the thief was thinking about how lucky he was that the captain decided not to an additional ticket check at the auction room doors, probably because he was afraid of offending any guests.

.   .   .

The auction was going for almost two hours and it was almost time for the Crystal Eye to be brought onto the stage. Although the group took a couple breaks to sit down and have a chat, Red and Green decided that from that point on they should make sure to be on full alert. Just as they were returning to the middle area, leaving Fille and Jon alone at a table, since their parents fathers seemed to take a liking to each other and sat together, they ran into a familiar face.

"Hey, Michael. How's it going?' Red asked the sailor after seeing him smuggling appetizers into his pockets.

"Oh. It's you, guys." it was slightly hard to decipher what he was saying since his mouth was full of various cheeses and meats.

After noticing that he had trouble swallowing it, Green handed him his third, half-full, wine glass. After emptying it completely, the man let out a sigh of relief.

"Thanks a lot." he said while handing the glass back to the teenager.

Surprised by that, Green was unsure about what to do with it, for a short while, until he saw a passing waiter and agilely placed it on the plate that person was carrying, without them noticing.

"So, did you spot anyone suspicious yet?" the sailor asked them.

"Wait. You know about this whole... Phantom thing?" Red was taken aback.

"I should. I'm part of the security detail. We must have missed each other at the entrance to this room since I was busy with some other stuff, but I stood by the doors for quite some time, eyeing up everybody. But I didn't find anyone suspicious."

"But what about now? You left your post?"

"Don't worry. I told one of the new guys to take my place since I was so busy that I didn't get to eat anything for a couple hours. All the restaurants are most likely closed so I decided to go in here. But I'm not allowed to actually eat any of this food so keep this from the captain."

Something that he said sparked Red's interest "What do you mean by "one of the new guys"?"

"A lot of the security guys got a flu or something so we had to hire new guys like a week ago."

"That seems suspicious. What if one of them is Phantom Venin in disguise?" Green spoke up.

"I thought about that. I checked each of them personally. The Phantom is supposed to be a slim guy and those are mostly muscular types, some overweight ones, and one woman. I made sure anyway by trying to pinch their cheeks but none of them was wearing a mask." Michael explained.

Red was in deep thought, which slightly worried the other two.

"Does the Phantom usually work alone?" he asked finally.

"If our information is right, he sometimes has one or two people helping him, but most of the heists he does are solo. Why? Did you come up with something?"

"No... I... I'm probably wrong..." Red didn't want to jump to conclusions based only on his assumptions.

"You never know. If what you are thinking about turned out to be helpf..." Michael stopped himself as both he and the teenagers noticed that most of the light in the room went dark.

The three of them turned their attention to the stage where the auctioneer was getting ready to make an announcement. He was not the only person there since he was accompanied by two members of the security. Red looked around after noticing that more and more people were moving towards the stage. He thought he caught a glimpse of Fille's father.

"We should also move up." decided Green.

Not realizing that Michael stayed behind, the boys moved through the crowd so that they were standing next to the fifth row from the stage.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" the auctioneer shouted into his mic which surely must have had its volume turned up for the auction of this specific object "This is what most of you probably came here for! One of the most sought after gems in the entire world! Although the previous owner refused to sell it to anyone during his lifetime, his will stated that he wanted it to be auctioned off after his passing, with all the profits going to charity! Some tales say that it's a clue to the existence of an ancient underwater civilization! Other say that it's an object left on earth by extraterrestrial beings! The most popular rumor is that it lets its owner see the future! If you want to learn its secrets, you will have to put a price on this previously priceless object! Here! It! Is! Crystaaaaal... Eyeeeee!"

As the man finished his speech, all the lights turned towards a spot on the middle of the stage. The floor opened, revealing a rising pedestal with a glass cover, with the Crystal Eye, a most beautiful, blue gem laying on a small red pillow. Green assumed in his mind that the glass was reinforced so that someone wouldn't be able to smash it, which meant that there probably was some kind of precaution that would prevent someone from even touching the cover unless they inputted the right code in the electronic pad attached o the pedestal. Green was thinking of ways that one could avoid touching the glass. There was probably a gap between the glass and the stone of which the pedestal was made but only something the size of a string could fit inside.

"Maybe the captain was worrying about no..." Green started talking to Red, but stopped as the room suddenly went completely dark.

Somewhere in the room, Phantom Venin, having rehearsed what he was going to do, managed to put on his mask and top hat, take off the fake facial features, and change back to his signature colors and natural hair, all in a matter of seconds, before he said to himself "It's showtime."

"What's going on?!" yelled out the auctioneer.

As if in response to him, the spotlights started moving around and flickering while the speakers started playing some kind of quick yet oddly menacing jazz music. The whole thing lasted for around 20 seconds, and most of the people took it as just some sort of spectacle. By catching quick glimpses of sailors who were the security detail, Green judged that this was definitely not a planned thing. Before he could come up with any idea on what to do, the music stopped as suddenly as it began. At the same time, all the lights turned back on, blinding the people for a short while. When they opened their eyes, everybody turned their attention towards the pedestal only to realize that Phantom Venin was standing right next to it, holding the Crystal Eye in his hand while smiling triumphally.

"Well? How was it? Did you like my little magic show?"

All of the people in the room were too shocked to answer or to even move. The auctioneer was staring at the thief for a second before he came back to his senses "Security, what are you doing?! Catch him!"

The two other men on stage ran towards the criminal, but as they got close, his wings emerged from under the cape and by doing a full spin with his body, he caused a wind which carried both of them off the stage and onto the hard floor beneath.

"That's not nice." he said in a sarcastic voice "You should wait until I receive my applause."

As if influenced by his words, somebody in the front row started clapping his hands. One by one, other people joined in, until a moment where almost everybody was doing it. When Green caught Red doing it, he became quite irritated.

"Oh. Sorry."

"Don't "sorry" me. We need to take back the Crystal Eye."

"Don't you find it weird?" Red asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Look around."

Green did just that, hoping to find whatever his friend was referring to. His face went white when he realized that the other security members placed in the room were just standing around and doing nothing. Some of them even looked weirdly happy with the situation.

"Something is wrong." the voice came from Michael who managed to catch up to them "I used my communicator to tell the other guys to do something but none of them answered. Not the ones here. Not the ones outside."

As if things weren't hectic enough, a loud noise came from behind them. As the trio turned around to see what was going on, they witnessed a group of people in what looked like gray, futuristic army uniforms, come inside the room. They weren't alone. They were surrounded by a group of various Pokemon; mostly Machokes and Machops but also a Venonat, an Exeggcute, and Exeggutor, a Slowpoke, a Chansey and a Beedrill. One of them, a beautiful woman with long, white hair, stepped out from the group and spoke through a megaphone "Ehm. We are the Darkness Gang. We come here to take all the precious items that are up for auction or have already been sold. First off, I urge you stay where you are and not make any suspicious movements unless you want to get hurt. We have our members everywhere in this room."

As she said that, all the sailors who were in the room as security, besides Michael, took off of their caps and threw them to the floor which seemed to signify their allegiance.

"Secondly, I would like to extend our thanks to Phantom Venin. Having learned that you planned to steal the Crystal Eye, we decided to use you, since we didn't know what measures were taken to protect the gem."

"My, my. You sure are greedy." the thief spoke through the microphone he took from the auctioneer "You had all these riches but you still waited for my arrival just so you could get the Crystal Eye."

"It is priceless after all." the woman responded.

"It is." the Phantom agreed "You know what else it is?"

"What?"

"Mine." right as he said those words, the thief swiftly threw a smoke pellet which he got from his bag, and used it to dive behind the curtains.

A couple of the fake sailors were ready to rush towards the stage but the moment they tried to move, all of them quickly fell down, which knocked them out. Green looked towards the one closest to him and realized that some white substance caused the shoes of those men to stick to the floor.

"Damn it!" the woman leading Darkness Gang yelled out "What are you waiting for?! Go after him!"

A couple members of her group and their Machops and Machokes started running towards the stage, knocking back anyone who stood in their way. Red and Green looked at each other to make sure that the other one was prepared to fight back, but the assault stopped suddenly when one of the gangsters was caused to trip by a familiar person. Fille stood up and looked at him with disgust "You won't get away with this."

"Oh yeah?! Machoke, teach her a lesson!"

The Pokemon prepared his punch and was already mid-swing when suddenly he stopped and started to wobble before falling down. His trainer realized that the girl was protected by the Oddish held in her arms, who released his Sleep Powder.

One of them came up with a solution to this newfound problem "It won't work if we attack in group!"

As an answer to that, three Machops jumped towards the girl. They did so from different angles although strictly speaking all of them were still in front of her. She closed her eyes in fear, suspecting that they were probably right in thinking that Oddish couldn't stop them, but it appeared that that he didn't need to.

The girl heard a loud crash and when she opened her eyes, all she could see was fire. As she took a step back, she realized that it was Jon's Rapidash who saved her by sending the group of fighting Pokemon flying into a wall. The young man was sitting on his steed's back and reached out his hand towards Fille to help her get on. She had to sit sideways because of her dress. Just as he said, she couldn't feel the fire even when touching it.

"What are we doing?" she asked.

"Causing a distraction." he answered quietly so that only she could hear him.

The members of Darkness Gang around them were too confused to react in time when Jon turned his horse around and began riding it towards the doors, right after he assured the rest of his friends with a thumbs up that everything would be okay.

"Oh no, you don't!" the villainous leader shouted as she pointed forward, giving her Beedrill a sign to attack the fire Pokemon.

She was left speechless when Rapidash jumped over, not only the bug, but also all of them, on his way to the exit, while barely avoiding scratching the ceiling with his horn. Everybody stood there for a couple seconds, waiting for the woman to give them some order.

"What are you doing?!" she exploded after coming back to her senses "Catch them before they call for help!"

A small group, including the ones with the Venonat, Exeggutor and Chansey, ran after the runaways, leaving only 8 conscious members of Darkness Gang in the room.

"Hmm. That is weird. Why has nobody called for help?" Green pondered, while putting emphasis on the word "has".

"Our phones are jammed." answered some man who overheard him.

"That explains it."

"I've been wondering..." Red spoke up "I think there are a lot more members of Darkness Gang on this ship than the ones we saw here."

"What do you mean?" wondered his rival.

"The chef at the restaurant we ate at said that they had to hire like 20 new people in recent history. Did you know about it, Michael?"

"I didn't. But if I'm thinking what you're thinking, that means that every department has been sabotaged over the last few weeks and subsequently infiltrated by Darkness Gang." answered the sailor.

"Which means that they might have already taken control of the ship and are driving it wherever they want to." pointed out Green.

"What are we going to do about it?" asked a voice which didn't belong to any of the three of them.

When they turned around with suspicion, they saw Phantom Venin who has been lurking behind them. The trio jumped back in surprise.

"What are you doing?!" Michael got rather angry

"Wait up! I came to ask for your help. I hoped that I could run away if I went backstage but there is no exit over there. So I need to go to the doors protected by that Dumbness Gang. I know I'm also a thief but for now we have a common enemy. How about it?" after saying that, he reached out his hand.

"Okay." Red agreed immediately and put his hand on the Phantom's.

"What?!" Michael was shocked.

"Whatever." Green did the same thing as Red.

"What?!"

"Come on, Michael." Red urged him on while smiling from ear to ear.

"Gah! Fine!" the sailor decided to give in.

The group lifted their hands up as a sign of their alliance with both Red and Phantom Venin giving out a happy shout.

"You think you can just ignore us?!" the woman with white hair was getting progressively angrier "Beedrill, Twineedle!"

The bug Pokemon rapidly travelled through the massive room, but the group still got enough time to jump towards the floor. As Red looked up, he realized that the Phantom decided to stand his ground and when Beedrill approached him, he used his wings blow it away. The bug, similar to his trainer, had a short temper and was ready to attack again without needing another command. Green caught onto the fact that before his wings would do anything, Phantom Venin would tap his back in a specific way. This time, the wings turned to steel and shielded him from the oncoming attack.

Beedrill backed away, looking at his arms in despair as he realized that both his stings started to crumble. After seeing a confident smile on the Phantom's face it wanted to turn away and fly off, but it felt something tugging on its leg and keeping it in place. It was a string and on its other end was a happy Caterpie, standing right next to the thief. After that surprise came another one when Phantom Venin's Clefable appeared seemingly out of nowhere and delivered a Mega Kick which caused the string to snap and sent Beedrill into the ceiling only for him to ricochet and land unconscious in front of his trainer. Clefable disappeared again, or at least it would seem like that but when Red and Green took a closer look, they realized that it just somehow became extremely small and jumped onto its trainer's shoulder.

"Hmm. So that's three." Green said while getting up, making sure that the Phantom could hear him.

"That's not nice." the thief understood what he was alluding to "Here I am, helping you out and you're focused on solving how I stole the Crystal Eye."

"We could make it a game. If I deduce all you did correctly, you'll return the Crystal Eye."

"Yeah, sure... No way." the criminal got disturbingly close to his face "My reputation would take a hit. I'm the third best thief in the world."

"That's oddly specific." noted Red.

"Can you focus?" Michael was getting impatient "I have a plan. Hey, crook."

"You mean me?" Phantom Venin pointed a finger at himself, truly surprised.

"Do you think you could carry these two while flying?" Michael asked while reaching for one of his pokeballs.

"I'm not sure. Maybe for a second or two."

"That would be enough. These thugs are all walking towards us. When they're close enough, fly above them and get out. I will stop them."

To get ready for his part in the plan, Michael released from a Poliwhirl who was eagerly awaiting an order.

"Will you be fine?" Red wanted to make sure before leaving the sailor by himself.

"Don't worry. I've been in worse situations... Now!"

When Michael shouted, Red, Green and Caterpie all grabbed onto Phantom Venin as he lifted them up into air and flew above their enemies heads. Although surprised by this move, some of the villains and their Pokemon managed to quickly turn around and were ready to run after the escaping group.

"Ice Beam!"

After hearing the command, Poliwhirl reached forward with his hand which began producing a stream of freezing energy which glued all the gangsters and their Pokemon to the floor. Michael watched his companions land safely and run towards the doors. Before they disappeared from his sight, he and Red exchanged a thumbs-up gesture.

"Now for the finishing touch! Go, Kangaskhan!"

After being sent out, the giant Pokemon landed in front of the entrance, completely blocking it.

"You fool! You've trapped yourself and all these people!" the white haired women yelled out after being freed from the ice by one of the Machokes.

"The only ones trapped here are you. This ship is my home. I won't let you do whatever you want with it." when saying those words, Michael reached for the pokeballs containing the remaining four of his partners.

.   .   .

"Wow. That guy was pretty hardcore." the Phantom commented after he and the others ran some distance away from the auction room "Well, I guess this is where we part ways."

"What?" Red looked at him with shock.

"I have what I came here for. I won't risk losing it by getting tangled up in this whole thing."

Red grabbed him by the collar and dragged his face uncomfortably close to his own. He looked furious. Green decided he would rather stand back and watch the whole thing play out.

"W-what?" although he would never admit it, in that moment, Phantom Venin got a little scared.

"You're already a part of this! You said you're the third best thief in the world! Well, this ship is full of other thieves and you decided to run! What does that make you?! The fiftieth best thief?! The hundredth?!"

"That's not how it works!"

"Then how does it work?!"

"Have you ever heard about "no honor among thieves"?"

"I'm not even sure what you're talking about!"

"Shut up!" Green finally interjected "Geez. If he wants to go, let him go. If we're lucky he'll run into some of the Darkness Gang and cause a distraction."

Phantom Venin freed himself from Red's grip by pushing the teenager away. After that, he made sure that the two buttons which connected his cape to his tuxedo were properly attached and clean. He turned back and started walking away without a word. After some time, he began flying. The boys watched him leave till he disappeared around some corner.

"What's the plan?" asked Red.

"They jammed the phones but the ship is still moving so if I go to the control room, I may be able to call for some help."

"Do you know the way?"

"I'll manage. But what are you going to do?"

"I'm sure that they captured the chef and people working in all the other restaurants. I'll go free them and send them out to free others. Even if the cooks don't have Pokemon, I hope that Darkness Gang will be afraid of their numbers. There still must be actual security guys somewhere. And we don't even know about other departments. But if every person I free manages to free another one, it will quickly turn into chaos."

"And we can take advantage of that chaos. Okay. See you soon."

They bumped their right fists before leaving in opposite directions.

.   .   .

"I mean, how dare they?" Phantom Venin was talking, seemingly to himself, while opening a door that led to one of the weather decks, after which, he took to air yet again "What kind of person would risk their life to safe someone they don't know. Especially if that someone is a rich asshole, since from what I saw that's most of the..."

He stopped talking after landing at the bow of the ship. Instead, he started looking around, visibly worried by something.

"Oh no. We have to find them. If those bastards did anything to them..."

Instead of finishing the sentence, he simply started flying again to return from whence he came.

.   .   .

Red arrived at the restaurant, sneaking by three members of Darkness Gang who were on the lookout. He found the chef and the rest of the staff unconscious and tied up in the kitchen.

"Hey, chef. Hey, chef." the boy talked to him while slapping him lightly on the cheek.

The man woke up and clearly wanted to say something but a patch of tape was covering his mouth. Red showed him a gesture which meant that even after taking it off, he should remain quiet. The restaurant owner listened to the teenager and after that, they began doing the same with all the others.

"What is going on here, boy?"

"It's kind of a long story and I don't know if we have the time. For now, listen. There's three guys right outside. I'm going to run past them. After that you'll swarm them from behind and did what they did to you."

"Okay."

"When you're done, you should check the other restaurants. I'm sure the situation there is similar. If you move fast and en masse, you should have no problem."

"But what about you?"

"I have to check how my friend is doing."

"Alright. Good luck."

After exchanging a handshake, Red run out of the restaurants, surprising the group of gangsters outside. He didn't even turn back to see if they would go after him, but since a couple seconds later nobody caught up to him, he was sure that his plan worked.

.   .   .

"Who are you?! What are you doing here?! Explain yours..."

The Darkness Gang member encountered by Green was given no chance, as Hitmonlee quickly knocked him out with a precise kick to the back of his head.

"Nighty night." the boy said while trying not to step on the criminal's body, while moving towards what looked like a communication panel.

The boy analyzed what he saw and after deciding that it shouldn't be too hard, sat down in a big, comfy, chair and put on a headset connected by a cable to a lot of machinery. He pressed some buttons and moved a couple of switches to get a connection. After using a dial to stabilize the radio, he began trying to speak through it.

"Hello... Hello. Is anybody receiving this?"

After a couple seconds of static, somebody answered "This is port control. This is a private frequency. Who are you and how did you access it?"

"My name is Green. I'm part of the security on St. Anne. The ship has been taken over by a group calling themselves Darkness Gang. They have Pokemon and there's only five of us against who knows how many of them. We need help."

"I... Can I speak with anyone else?" the person on the other end seemed unsure of whether they could trust this message.

"I just got here and it seems like everybody has been knocked out."

"Alright... I... Wait. You just came into the range of our radar. How's this possible. Did the ship turn around?"

Green looked around, feeling kind of stupid that he didn't notice, but there really was no way till he arrived in that room. He searched around and found machinery which controlled the movements of the ship while also having a map and a radar.

"This doesn't look good." he said after returning to the communication station "They steered us so that we'll swim somewhere south of Vermilion City, and destroyed the control panels. Which means we won't stop until we hit some island. I guess they have a plan to get off the ship before that happens."

"Oh no! I'll ring the alarm! My boss will know what to do. Stay there and wait. We'll see if there's something you can do. But the help will be on its way as soon as possible."

.   .   .

"I liked the previous movie better." said the woman who invited Blue to Lt. Surge's party, who now sat next to her since the girl didn't know anyone else besides her and the Gym leader who was occupied with making barbecue for the guests.

"Yeah." the girl agreed "All the fighting seems faked."

"That's absurd!" they heard a manly voice behind them.

It was none other than Lt. Surge who gave control over the grill to somebody else since his favorite scene was about to begin. He sat on the grass and began eating the fish shashlik with onion and bell pepper which he just prepared himself.

"This particular actor is famous for doing his own stunts. And he has a third dan in Karate. That's almost as good as me." after saying that, he laughed for a while before he started to eat.

He seemed like a very kind and smart person, and he definitely gave Blue trouble in their Gym battle, but she still thought that he could sometimes come off as too full of himself. That was one of those times.

"Hmm?" the leader looked down when he noticed that his cellphone was vibrating in the pocket of his camo pants.

He put down his paper plate and answered the call. Blue glanced in his direction as she heard him getting louder with each second. He seemed shocked and excited at the same time. Finally, his call ended and he stood up, with fire burning in his eyes. He reached into another pocket and took out a whistle. Seeing that he was going to blow into it, the girl covered her ears, but still was close enough that she could almost feel the sound instead of hearing it. All the other people turned their attention towards the leader and the person responsible for the projector stopped the movie. All the people had serious faces, since they knew that only a serious matter could cause Lt. Surge to stop his movie party. Some started whispering, exchanging ideas on what could have happened.

"You need to move away from this spot. You can return to watching the movie after this but I need what's under us, so move... about 30-40 meters in that direction."

Since the Gym was far from any buildings and surrounded by grass, it seemed weird when the leader wanted them to move to another place on the plain, but nevertheless, everybody listened and walked over there. Suddenly, Blue felt the ground move and the place where they sat before started moving. A rectangular hole opened in the ground and from it appeared a platform with a helicopter. The girl, and around twenty other curious people, walked over to ask the leader what this whole thing was about.

"I've been called onto. The pride of Vermilion City, St. Anne, has been taken over by some damn com... I mean, by a group of criminals." he explained.

"Is it Team Rocket?" somebody asked.

"No. It's the Darkness Gang. They were once the most influential criminal organization in Kanto but since Team Rocket appeared, we haven't heard too much about them. But it seems like they staged a comeback and wanted to make it a big one. We're lucky that some young fella stood up to them and managed to contact port control. They'll try to find some way to help him stop the ship but if those bastards get to him before then, he will be in trouble. That's where I come in. I'm gonna knock some sense into those fools."

Blue stood there paralyzed from the shock. Her face went white as soon as she heard about the young male. Since she thought she saw Red on the ship, there was a high chance that he was the one that contacted the land. And even if that wasn't him, if there was a chance that he was on that ship, she was sure that he would get himself in trouble.

"Let me go with you!" she shouted, not stopping to think of how it may have made her look, or what danger that could put her in if she was allowed to accompany the leader.

"What? No, I ca..."

"She's right!" somebody else interrupted the leader.

"Yeah! What if that ship crashes into the city?" another one spoke up.

"We're also Pokemon trainers! We've fought you before. You should know you can count on us!"

A tear, signifying how proud he was, appeared in :Lt. Surge's eye. He didn't feel like that for many years. But he didn't want to show weakness, so he gathered himself and looked at them with a stern expression.

"Alright. But I can't take all of you. I will take her..." he pointed at Blue "...since I saw her abilities today and I know she's in top form. I'll also take Rockskey, since he was a helicopter pilot. With the ship moving, it will be hard to land so we'll have to jump. I'll take another eight of you. Decide with rock paper scissors. As for the remaining ones, go to the port and ask them if you can be of any help."

"Sir, yes sir!" they shouted while saluting him.

.   .   .

"Where are they?" the Phantom was getting progressively more worried as he searched the ship "Hm? What's that sound?"

As he looked towards a side corridor, he saw a group of men running at him. He managed to rise above them so that he wouldn't be trampled by them. Judging by their clothes, he thought them to be ship's cooks. After reaching him, one of them jumped up to grab onto the sleeve of his pants.

"What are you doing, assholes?! Leave me alone! I don't have time for this!" he yelled while trying to free himself.

"You try to take over our ship and now try to act innocent?! Don't make me laugh!" responded the man holding onto him.

"I'm not part of Darkness Gang, you idiot! And I certainly don't have time for this! Caterpie!"

The bug Pokemon, who was sitting on one of his trainer's shoulders, used a String Shot on the assailant's face, which distracted him enough for Phantom Venin to get free. After that, he flew away, faster than before, to make sure that he would lose them.

"It seems like this place has become a full-on battlefield. But what happened to my Pokemon?"

.   .   .

"Pikachu, Thunder Shock!"

The electric rodent jumped off a wall, avoiding a Machoke's punch to land on its head and electrify it with his attack, causing the fighting Pokemon to finally faint after battling it for a couple minutes. The Darkness Gang member, who was commanding the said creature, fell on the floor from shock but still tried to get up to run away, but another attack from the electric mouse put him out of commission.

"How are you holding up, Pikachu?" Red said while kneeling down to pat his companion.

The Pokemon tried to look tough, but it was hard to hide how exhausted he was after taking part in several battles in a row. As he made his way towards where he thought he would find Green, Red tried to stop in one of the Pokemon Centers only to find that the healing machines have been destroyed, no doubt by the Darkness Gang. He already used up most of his potions and it seemed like he was meeting a new enemy at every other step.

"Wait..." the boy stood up "Do you hear? What is that?"

Slowly, he got up and tried peeking behind the corner from where he heard a sound of something approaching them. When he realized that it seemed to be some kind of Pokemon, apparently ready to walk right through them, he grabbed Pikachu and began running from the approaching creature, finally going into a smaller corridor at the end of which were doors leading outside. Once he ran a couple steps past the doors, he turned around, to make sure that the size of that corridor would be enough to stop whatever it was that tried to attack them, but that something decided to prove him wrong.

Parts of the walls and the ceiling came flying as a massive, four armed beast arrived in front of them. It stopped and looked at them menacingly, but after a short while, it decided to make way for a person who looked a lot more human, but still just as dangerous. It was a man who looked like he could be in his sixties, but had a physique of an athlete and was as tall as his Pokemon and as wide as a washing machine. He had an eyepatch, a big scar on his cheek and was smoking a cigar, which added some weird vibe to his look.

"Why would you do that?" the man had a deep voice, but with a touch of melancholy, which somehow made Red immediately think that he would be a good singer "Why would you get in our way like that? We could have stolen those things and you would still have time to jump off the ship. But you just had to get. In. Our. Way."

The man's face and voice became more intense with each word he spoke. Red deduced that the person wanted to get serious from the get-go when he saw him throw away and step on his cigar.

"Machamp..." the man lifted his index and middle fingers which signaled his Pokemon to get ready "...take them down."

The living mass of muscles began approaching Red and Pikachu at an astonishing speed and the only thing the both of them could think of in that moment was to dodge, thinking that if they move in opposite directions, the opponent would be too torn up on who to go after, making him unable to attack either of them. But they miscalculated the reach of his arms. The Pokemon stuck his legs forward to stop himself as he used his bottom arms to get both of them in his grasp. He stood in place, with the wooden floor slightly damaged by his sudden halt, while looking from one to the other, both struggling to get out.

Pikachu was in pain and could think of only one way to free them, but he didn't want to do it since he could end up hurting his trainer. But a faint smile on Red's face told the rodent that the teenager was prepared for it. The electric Pokemon gathered as much energy as it could an released it, electrifying the foe and, by extension, his own trainer. Machamp felt his hands grow weak and dropped both of them. After that, he took a step back to evaluate how to go against such a problematic opponent. Meanwhile, Pikachu gathered itself and jumped over to Red to check up on him. The boy was breathing heavily but managed to prop himself up to finally stand on both legs, however wobbly they were.

"They aren't like those previous guys. That Machamp thing is used to fighting without getting any orders. Since he has four arms..." Red reached towards the pokeballs containing the rest of his team "...I'll fight him with four Pokemon. Go, everybody!"

After being released a couple meters above Machamp, Red's Pokemon had to quickly judge what was going on and adapt to the situation. Charmander and Eevee began by using Ember and Swift respectively. While Machamp was preoccupied with protecting himself from these attacks, Pikachu took the chance and used a Quick Attack on one of the foe's legs, which made him lose his balance and flail all his arms in a hopeless attempt at trying to regain it. The cherry on top was Charmander and Eevee uniting in using their tales as a base for Magikarp's Bounce which instead of going up was directed at the falling opponent. The fighting Pokemon was hit straight in his head and finally collapsed. When everybody landed, they were still wary of whether or not they beat him, which turned out to be a good idea, as the Machamp stood up almost immediately, full of anger to boot.

"This fight has just begun." declared the man from Darkness Gang.

.   .   .

"You are a monster. How... How is this possible?" the white haired woman, who was leading the part of the villainous organization which attacked the auction room, has fallen to her knees, and although she wanted to, she couldn't bring herself to stand up after what she had just gone through.

Michael stood not too far away, using a piece of tablecloth to stop the bleeding from his arm. Since Red and the others left the place, it got heavily damaged, but the most important part was that all the Darkness Gang members have already been defeated, not only their Pokemon, but also they themselves, after Michael laid his hands on them.

"Let me help you tie that. I was a nurse when I was young." one of the female guest wanted to help the sailor with caring for his wounds.

"Don't worry. If I couldn't take at least this much pain, I couldn't call myself a part of this ship's crew."

"But I must say, I never saw a Pokemon quite like those you used in this battle." commented one older gentleman.

"That's understandable. Since St. Anne swims between Kanto and Johto, some of my Pokemon are from there." explained Michael "But I don't have time to stand around and talk. I have to check how the others are doing. I'll leave Kangaskhan to protect the door so for now, could you tie up these assholes and stay here?"

Nobody responded but the sailor knew that he could take that as a "yes" since all the people there had faces which showed that they were grateful towards him.

"Okay. Tauros!" as he called for his Pokemon, which has been sniffing a Machoke it defeated, it ran over to him "It's time to kick some more butt."

The Pokemon got as low as it could, to allow the man to get on its back, after which they quickly left the room, and Kangaskhan again blocked up the entrance.

.   .   .

"Get out here, you stupid thing! Or don't you care about your friend?!"

A group of Darkness Gang members and a couple of their Machops and Machokes were gathered in one place, with one of the evolved Pokemon holding Phantom Venin's Porygon in its hands. They also had with them the Exeggutor which was keeping a watchful eye on its surroundings, as if it expected something to appear from thin air.

"If that's how it's going to be, then fine. Machoke, squeeze it harder!" spoke up the same gangster.

In response to that, the Gastly appeared from nowhere and flew as fast as it could towards its friend, but it was still too slow and was hit by a Psyshock from the Exeggutor, which sent it spiraling towards the floor.

"Stupid trash. We won't let you interfere in our plans. Machoke, go pick it up."

As one of the muscular Pokemon reached towards the Gastly which was writhing in pain, it stopped as it felt something below. Suddenly, a bunch of flaming balls appeared at its feet and started rising while circling his body, causing it to get hurt. When the attack reached its head, it finally disappeared, and Machoke fell on his bottom, not completely sure what just happened.

"What is it now?!" Machoke's trainer got irritated and started looking for whomever was responsible for that move.

Finally, he laid his eyes on something, but it was moving too fast for him to immediately recognize what it was, especially since it seemed to be running straight at him. The last thing he saw before going before losing consciousness was the underside of a hoof right before his eyes.

"Who the hell are you?!" one of the other criminals yelled out in panic.

"Someone who came to defeat you." Jon announced from atop his steed.

Fille was still sitting beside him, trying to make scary faces at the other ones, although it was hard for anyone to not consider them kind of cute. To her surprise, Oddish decided to jump out of her hands and approach Gastly. She went after him and saw that he wanted to use Sweet Scent to calm down the ghost Pokemon, since there was no way to help it with its pain.

Fille looked up and saw that Exeggutor was continuing to use Psyshock to torment Gastly. She stood up and did the only things she could think of in that moment, which was to drop kick the palm tree Pokemon. She held onto her dress while in the air to not reveal too much of herself, but her attack was still successful. Exeggutor fell backwards which caused a domino effect as it hit a criminal who fell on another one who dropped onto the Machoke holding Porygon, which allowed the virtual Pokemon to free itself and immediately fly towards its friend to check how it was doing.

"We can't lose like this! Machoke, crush that Porygon!" shouted one of the men while trying to stand up.

The Pokemon which was previously struck by Rapidash's Fire Spin, was already back on his legs and close enough that it could immediately proceed with punching its target. It hesitated a little when it saw Fille jump in the way of its punch, but didn't stop. As its fist sank into the girl's body, she felt like she was about to throw up. She was flung through the corridor and would experience more pain by hitting the floor were it not for her savior.

Phantom Venin grabbed her just in time as he was flying towards the group after noticing his Pokemon from afar. He landed as gently as he could and put the girl on the floor just as she was going unconscious. He bit his lip, ashamed by the thought that he was, in a way, responsible for what just happened. Meanwhile, angered Jon, used Rapidash to run into the one who attacked Fille and send him into a wall.

"I don't like to get serious but..." the Phantom said to himself while grabbing onto the buttons that attached the cape to his suit "...I'm really pissed off."

After throwing away his cape in an overly dramatic way, the thief revealed that the wings on his back didn't belong to him, but in fact to a Golbat who was hiding under it.

Jon jumped off the back of his Pokemon when Phantom Venin approached him. They stood side by side when the prince said "I'll take one half, you'll take the other. How about that?"

"Fine by me."

.   .   .

"What is that?"

"What are you talking about?"

Two of the people in Lt. Surge's cramped helicopter were looking outside in some indistinct shapes in the water, but they were too high and even the light of the moon wasn't enough to tell whether there really was something there or if they just imagined whatever it was.

"I'm not sure... But maybe... I've been wondering about something. I'm sure Lt. Surge also thought about it."

"What is it? Spill it out?" insisted the other one.

"Since Lt. explained that the ship controls have been destroyed after changing the course, that means that the ship will crash, right?"

"I mean... yeah. But there's still a long way until we reach any island so we're supposed to focus on subduing the Darkness Gang while the eggheads on the ship and in the port come up with a way to stop it."

"I think the thing he's worried about..." interjected Blue "...is how those thieves want to escape? The ship is going too fast to safely get into lifeboats and they can't just all jump into the sea since they would risk damaging the things they plan to steal."

"Which means they are probably doing the same thing as we are." spoke up the leader who has been listening in on their conversation from the co-pilot seat.

"They are using a helicopter!" shouted one of them who until that time didn't arrive at the same conclusion as the others.

"Or multiple helicopters, or an airship." added Blue.

"Then what are we going to do? What if we defeat all the bad guys but more arrive by air?" asked one of the people.

"Even if they have a plan to escape by air, the crew of whatever they arrive in should be minimal since they would need a place to fit all the riches and the ones who stole them." explained the leader "If we see anyone in the sky, we'll try to contact them. If they don't answer within 10 seconds, I'll shoot them down."

After those last words, the leader hit an open palm with a fist while smiling as if he really wanted that to open. Some of the people looked at others to make sure if they were just as afraid of what that statement meant.

.   .   .

Green looked on as the people responsible for steering the ship were running in amok while trying to find a way to salvage the controls. One of them even ran into him and continued onward without looking if the boy was okay.

"Could you not stand in our way?!" another one yelled at him.

"I just wanted to make sure that you're not attacked again." he tried reasoning with him.

"There is no need for that! Earlier they took us by surprise but right now we're ready to dealt with anyone who comes in here!" the man yelled while pointing, first toward an unneeded pipe he attached to his belt and then to a couple fire extinguishers they prepared in a safe spot.

"Okay. You take care of yourselves. I will check how's the situation in other places." he explained before going out the door with his Hitmolee.

Once outside, he stretched for a while before saying quietly "I hope Red is doing okay."

After that, both he and his Pokemon launched forward as fast as they could.

.   .   .

Red tried to dodge the fastest he could but was still hit by his Magikarp who has just been effortlessly thrown by the Machamp they were fighting against. The boy took the brunt of the damage when he hit the floor and cut open his forearm. Magikarp got off him and looked rather worried, but his trainer quickly removed the upper part of his suit, rolled up the sleeve of his dress shirt and tore off a piece of the jacket to tie it around his wound. He was worried during those seconds since the rest of his Pokemon were still occupied with fighting and although he trusted them, he felt less worried when he could command them in the battle. When he was done with stopping the bleeding, he looked up and saw Eevee trying to distract Machamp with Mirror Room while Charmander and Pikachu attacked him with Ember and Thunder Shock from a safe distance.

"Machamp, stop playing around!" yelled the eye-patched man "Use Bulk Up!"

The fighting Pokemon listened which meant that he flexed his muscles, increasing his strength and durability. This was used to lessen the damage he was taking from Charmander and Pikachu and to prepare him for the next move.

"Now use Low Sweep!"

Machamp spun around while sticking out its leg. He was fast enough to hit all of Eevee's afterimages and even the real one. When he felt the opponent being hit by his shin, he changed the direction to fling him upward in order to avoid him dodging his next attack.

"Cross Chop!"

Machamp formed and "X" with its upper arms just as they began to glow with energy and jumped towards Eevee. Red instantly arrived at the only possible option at that moment "Charmander, shoot down Eevee!"

Without hesitation, the lizard shot out a volley of fiery bullets which hit the dog from the side and pushed him out of Machamp's way just as he was about to be hit. Eevee recovered in air and landed gracefully next to Pikachu. After a short while, the fighting Pokemon also arrived back at the deck.

"That was a bold move, but a clever one too." commented the gangster "Do you have any other tricks up your sleeve?"

Red didn't want to get distracted by a conversation and proceeded to giving his next order "Eevee! It's time to use the thing we've been working on! Swift Version B!"

Knowing what he was supposed to do, the dog closed its eyes to focus. This new attack took a couple seconds longer to charge than the regular one which was almost instant but thankfully both Machamp and his trainer were careful not to attack before seeing what they opponents wanted to do. To their surprise, it seemed like the attack was somehow supposed to involve Pikachu as he and Eevee both began using Quick Attack to advance towards their foe.

"Superstar!" shouted Red.

Eevee opened its mouth but both of the Pokemon were moving too fast for Machamp to realize what was happening. Instead of releasing a group of small stars, the dog released a single star which was about half the size of his body. His foe realized that just as he was about to be hit in the face. The thing he didn't notice was that for a short while, Pikachu sat on the starshaped projectile and jumped off it at just the right time.

While Machamp was completely occupied with protecting his face and chest, he left his back completely open, which gave the electric Pokemon a chance to use Iron Tail on the back of his opponents head. Machamp's eyes went completely white and for a fraction of a second he felt as if he lost control of his body, but he got recovered almost instantly only to realize to painful what he just went through was. He reached backwards with his upper arms and caught the rodent with one of them. Before Red could give any of his Pokemon a new command, the enraged Machamp slammed Pikachu into the floor. He lifted him up and did it again. And again. And again.

"Enough!" yelled his trainer.

Machamp stopped himself and slowly regained his senses. He realized that his opponent was not only badly bruised but also passed out. He backed off a couple steps.

"We still have the other ones to take care of." reminded him the gangster.

Red silently returned Pikachu back to his pokeball and lowered his cap so that his eyes wouldn't be visible while he was cleaning them from tears which started gathering when he realized he couldn't save his Pokemon from being hurt.

"There's something we still haven't tried out." Red said to his remaining part of his team, who slowly backed off and were within 2 meters of him "I didn't want to do it because I felt... I didn't want to lose... But because of my selfishness Pikachu was hurt... Charmander... Use Smokescreen!"

"What?!"

The Darkness Gang member couldn't do anything when the fire Pokemon released a thick cloud of black smoke from his mouth. Machamp knew better than trying to find his opponents while blinded so he waited in one spot, but this actually gave Red and his team a chance to run away, since when the smoke cleared, they were nowhere to be seen.

"Don't worry, Machamp. You put the fear in that boy. Now I'm sure that we won't see him again."

.   .   .

"What the hell is that sound?" Michael asked himself while searching one of the uppermost decks in hope of finding one of the people he helped get out of the auction room.

He looked above for where the noise came from and was subsequently blinded by a light which he soon after realized to be coming from a helicopter flying above the ship. He raised one hand above his eyes to allow him to better see something he noticed approaching him from the direction of the aircraft. When he realized what, or rather who it was, he immediately changed the position of his hand stood straighter to salute the arrival of Lt. Surge who descended by hanging onto his Magneton.

"Stand down, Michael."

"You remember me, Sir?" the sailor was shocked.

"Hahaha. A good soldier needs to have good memory. I remember every person who won the Thunder badge and that's not a lot of people, I must say. I don't like to brag, but I win 90% of Gym battles. If not for me, the Pokemon League would probably last a month. The fact that you won against me definitely makes you a person worth remembering."

"Thank you, Sir." the sailor bowed, but this caused him to feel pain in his back which was left over as one of the mementos of the auction room battle.

"Okay, okay. Let's get down to business."

They talked for a while with Michael explaining everything he knew about the situation on the ship. Meanwhile, the group who came with Lt. Surge got down on the deck, but in a more traditional manner, that is, by using a rope ladder.

"So we don't know how many hostiles remain, we don't know if the helicopter pad is safe. we don't know how they're planning to escape and we don't know if it's possible to stop the ship. That's a lot unknowns, but I've worked with worse." summarized the leader "Alright. It's not much but the plan for now is that I'll let Rockskey know to return to Vermilion since we can't just have him hang above us and waste fuel. The rest of us, that's 11 including you Michael, are gonna split in 3 teams. I'll lead the first one, you'll lead the second and..."

"10 people." one of the people interrupted.

"What?" Lt. Surge looked at that person in confusion.

"There's 10 of us here. I think the one who is missing is that Blue girl." they explained.

The leader looked around to make sure that wasn't a mistake but it turned out the girl was really gone.

Meanwhile, not far away, the runaway girl was frantically looking around while running through the corridors. Even though she wasn't sure, something like an instinct was telling her that Red was on that ship, and if he was, she knew that he would get himself in some dangerous situation. She started repeating in her mind that that everything would be okay, to calm herself down, but that only made her more worried.

.   .   .

"There's one of them!" a member of Darkness Gang who managed to notice Green, pointed in the direction of the boy who was running towards stairs leading to a higher floor, since he noticed that the elevators were disabled.

When he heard them, he didn't waste any time and threw forward three pokeballs which released Ivysaur, Jigglypuff and Nidorina. The 3 gangsters whom he faced and an equal number of Machokes, decided to stand on guard, to prepare themselves for the attacks that would surely be coming at them from Green's team.

"Razor Leaf! Disarming Voice! Poison Sting! Jump Kick!" the teenager ordered.

"Wait, what was that last one?" one of the gangsters asked, confused by the fact that Green gave 4 orders while they could only see 3 of his Pokemon.

While the group of Machokes stood with their arms put up to protect their torsos and faces, something astonishingly quick started travelling between the walls, the floor and ceiling, bouncing off and avoiding all the attacks which were hitting the Machokes. Finally, Hitmonlee revealed itself by landing right between the Darkness Gang members. Before they could warn their Pokemon, Hitmonlee leapt forward to kick one of the fighting Pokemon in the back of the head. This not only hurt that one, but also caused him to drop his guard and become an easier target for Ivysaur's leaves. When the other two noticed what happened it was already too late.

"Double Kick!"

While still in air, Hitmonlee spun around while extending both his legs to knock out the two foes. The rest of Green's team stopped their attack once they saw that the victory was theirs. When Hitmonlee turned towards the criminals, his judgmental eyes caused them so much terror that they grabbed each other by their collars and hit their heads together, which made all of them pass out. Green decided to check up on them just to be sure that it wasn't a trap. Right as he was doing that, he heard a voice behind him.

"Green! So you are safe!"

When he turned around, he saw the unusual alliance of Jon and Phantom Venin approaching him. The unconscious Fille was hanging from the Rapidash while the prince was walking beside it. Curiously, the Phantom was also on foot, and accompanied by a Golbat, a Porygon and a Gastly who were flying right behind him. Red's Oddish was sleeping atop the head of Clefable who didn't seem to mind, while the final Pokemon, Caterpie, was still sticking to its trainer's shoulder.

"What made you change your mind?" Green asked while looking at the thief.

"I just don't like to owe people anything." he answered while glancing at Fille.

"I'm not sure what that means but... whatever. Did you meet anyone besides me? I mean, someone not from Darkness Gang?"

"Yeah." responded Phantom Venin "It seems like various other people have begun fighting back against Dumbness Gang. The problem is that they keep mistaking me for one of the villains."

"You are." interjected Jon.

"What?"

"A villain."

The Phantom looked at him as if the prince said something unbelievable "I mean... In a sense, you're right. But I'm too lovable to be confused with one of those styleless thugs. I don't hurt anybody. I'm not a bad person."

"Then want to prove it?" Green asked with a confident smirk.

"What? Oh... You mean to tell me you've finally figured out how I stole the Crystal Eye?"

"Every detail."

"Okay." the Phantom took out the Crystal Eye from his bag and held it in front of his face while making a serious face "If you're right, this is yours. Thief's honor."

"Well, you said that there's no honor among..."

"Alright, alright. I swear on... what can I swear on?"

"I... Your father or mother?"

"Got it. I swear on my mother. To hell with the other one."

That last expression made the other two raise a brow in curiosity of what the Phantom's family relations looked like.

"You can begin."

"You can't fly. You wear a cape to hide a Golbat which attaches to your back. At first I thought you used your mask, but after a while I noticed those buttons that you attach your cape with. They're masked cameras which connect to something on your back which allows Golbat to see what's in front of you. Even then, to not reveal the secret behind your trick, you don't give him orders. Instead, you tap on him in a specific manner to let him know what to do. Now that I saw that you have a Porygon and a Gastly, I deduced that you had them sneak into the room responsible for controlling the lights and the sound system in the auction room. Gastly took control over a possible guard and made him knock himself out while Porygon changed himself into data to flick the lights and play that shitty song. While everybody was confused by what was happening, your Caterpie used String Shot to glue the fake security guards to the floor. I'm not sure in which part of the auction room you were before you began your whole act but I suspect that long before you even approached the stage, Clefable was already there, using Minimize to hide itself. When the pedestal with the Crystal Eye appeared, Clefable reverted back to its normal size in a moment when the room was dark and minimized again mid-air to finally land next to the glass. He was so small that he could fit between the pedestal and the glass, so he didn't trigger the trap. He became big again, grabbed the gem, shrunk again and escaped from there. Then he enlarged to give you the Crystal Eye and used Minimize for the last time before you used him in battle. The thing is, even with the lights going on and off and that music, people would have noticed that you flew above them. So the only conclusion is that you didn't fly. You have a sixth Pokemon, one who can use the move Teleport. Probably an Abra, since having an evolved one would create a bigger risk of someone seeing him and realizing how you did it."

For the next several seconds, Phantom Venin stood with his mouth agape from shock, while Jon was quickly looking between the Phantom and Green, not sure why the thief reacted in such a way.

"Are... Are you some kind of natural genius? Telepath maybe?" Phantom Venin tried to find some explanation while panicking over the fact that he lost the bet because of his overconfidence.

"Nope. I just like Pokemon a lot." Green answered with a honest smile on his face, which somehow didn't quite fit the opinions the other two have created about him.

The teenager reached out towards the thief, who was still a little astonished but somehow managed to come to his senses and handed over the Crystal Eye.

"Alright." Green said while hiding the gem in his pocket "We wasted enough time here. I don't believe that the woman in the auction room is in charge of this whole operation, so we still need to find their boss while taking out any other ones we meet."

"At least when I'm with you, there will be less chance of someone mistaking me for a villain." commented the Phantom who looked like he was trying to deal with the sadness over the loss of Crystal Eye.

"But you are a villain." quickly reminded him Jon.

.   .   .

Avoiding places overrun by the released cooks and sailors facing off against the Darkness Gang members, Red and his Pokemon managed to reach a sub-floor which contained a laundry room and a janitor's closet. He fell on his bottom in front of a washing machine before he even had a chance to turn on the light.

Thankfully, Charmander's tail lit up the immediate area as the boy and his team of Pokemon were trying to catch their breaths after their fast escape from the frighteningly strong gangster and his Machamp. After taking a little while to rest, Magikarp, who had to be carried by the trainer, signaled that he wanted to be placed on the floor alongside the others, by wiggling around.

"Oh, right." the teenager realized what that meant and fulfilled his wish.

While the group of Pokemon were looking up at their trainer, he was occupied with staring at Pikachu's pokeball which he held in his hand since the electric Pokemon lost his battle. Magikarp became worried about the situation and lowered his gaze, while the other two gasped in shock when they saw tears slowly appear in Red's eyes and travel down his cheeks. The boy held up the pokeball against the lower side of his forehead, although careful not to press the button. He continued crying while trying to come up with something that would solved the problem of how he felt at that moment.

"I'm sorry, Pikachu... This is all my fault."

Charmander looked around, unsure of what to do, when he noticed that the other two also started crying. He was just as devastated as them but he would consider it a hit to his pride if he broke down like the rest of the group. Still, he felt helpless. All he knew how to do was fighting and that wouldn't be of any use in a situation such as the one they were in. Or would it?

"I should have never ordered you to fight against somebody that strong..."

Suddenly, Red felt an immense pain in the same place he was wounded before. It was the same arm which held the pokeball, so it caused the ball to fall out of the boys hand and into his lap. When he opened his eyes, still full of tears, he saw that the cause of this was Charmander who bit into the place Red tied the sleeve of his suit around. He quickly cleaned his eyes with the other hand while enduring the pain. More than caring about what he was going through, he wanted to understand why the lizard would do such a thing.

"Charmander, what is going on?" he asked while slowly petting the Pokemon's head.

The other two also stopped crying and were looking at this unusual scene with curiosity. After a while the fire Pokemon released the boy's arm and looked at him with an angry expression, as if that stunt was somehow a message that the trainer was supposed to understand. Worried that it didn't work, the lizard jumped back and signaled the other ones to step back. After they listened to his request, he closed his eyes to focus for a couple seconds, after which the flame on his tail grew several times in size, to finally envelop his body. The Pokemon released the loudest and fiercest roar it could. Red used his memory to go earlier in the day and remembered how Charmander behaved similarly when they fought against Michael and Kangaskhan. That time it was caused by Charmander feeling that Red treated him as if he was not worthy enough to fight his own fights to the end.

"I understand that you wanted to win but it just wasn't possible!" the boy shouted while standing up "That wasn't a normal battle after which you can just get healed in a Pokemon Center! I don't want to risk you getting hurt!"

After hearing that, the lizard jumped forward and hit Red's wound with his flaming head. The piece of cloth quickly burned up while the wound cauterized a little. The boy was in pain and he was still bleeding slightly so he had to grab it again. While dealing with that, Red realized that it wasn't pride which Charmander cared about. The thing he wanted was trust, and not just any trust but one that goes both ways. The boy kneeled down one leg while still enduring the pain.

"I think I finally got what you wanted to say..." he said.

Hearing that, the lizard caused its flames to go back to normal and looked at the boy, still unsure if they really managed to understand each other.

"...How can I be such a selfish hypocrite? We're a team after all. I was worried about any of you getting hurt while I had no problem about getting hurt myself. But you also don't want me getting hurt..."

A slight smile appeared on Charmander's face, while the other Pokemon listened to what the boy had to say and started thinking about how they felt about the whole situation.

"...I know that I probably can't win against that guy but that never should have stopped me from trying. When you became part of my team, all of you made an unspoken promise that you would fight together with me, and I was the one to break it... I just want to make sure... before I return to face that guy... There a ton of innocent people on this ship that could lose their lives, so I'm going to put my own life on the line to stop that. Can I count on you waging your lives together with mine?" after that last question, he reached forward with his hurt arm with the hand formed into a fist.

Almost instantly, the trio of Pokemon put their paw, hand and fin on the boy's hand.

"Alright! It's time to kick some ass or die trying." after standing up, Red quickly remembered about his wound which he somehow forgot in his excitement "But first... Let's seal this up completely."

.   .   .

"Mr. Eisen!"

The man who previously fought Red was searching for any other people who would dare to oppose him, while he heard a voice call out his name. He turned around and saw that it was one of his subordinates who looked like he was beat up by somebody. He was barely able to walk and as soon as he reached his superior, he was about to collapse, but the massive man caught him by the collar and lifted so that they would be on the same eye level.

"Who did this to you?" he asked in a voice that well masked how ashamed he was that his people would lose to anyone.

"It... It... It was him." the man barely got the sentence out while pointing towards the doors through which he arrived on that particular weather deck.

He threw the pathetic excuse for a gangster over the railing, causing him to land on a table a couple meters down, probably breaking several bones. He didn't want anyone interrupting what was about to happen, since while squinting his one eye to see the approaching silhouette, he slowly began to feel like he recognized it. When that someone finally stepped out of the dark corridor and into the moonlight, a big smile arrived on Eisen's face. The person was indeed someone whom he knew all too well. It was Lt. Surge.

The gym leader looked even more excited than before since he also recognized the criminal "Long time no see... Sgt. Faust Eisen."

The man laughed loudly in response while putting one hand on his belly "Oh man... That's good. You're gonna use my rank? Do you order people to call you Lieutenant? We're not in army anymore."

"You say that you're not in army but you still seem to be fighting a war." Surge said while making a more serious expression.

"Because the war never ended. We didn't win anything. Some stupid bureaucrats signed some deal to end it, but if we fought just a little longer we could have won it! What was the point to all of that? They told us we would be heroes but all we did was kill... villages full of people... And when it was all "over"? We returned home and everybody forgot. No one here cared about the war since it took place halfway around the world. We got some stupid medals and were left on ice. With what we experienced there, how do they expect people to just build new lives for themselves? We don't have families, we can't get good jobs... This is the only way. I..."

"Enough."

"I feel power again..."

"I said enough!" the leader yelled, visibly angry.

Faust realized that he was breathing heavily and sweating all over his face. It was a long time since he lost control like that and he didn't want it to cloud his judgement, especially since he knew how strong Surge could be.

"There is no use in talking to you." decided the leader "So I'm just going to bring you down. Go, Raichu!

The electric mouse appeared from its pokeball on all fours, ready to begin the attack as soon as it would receive the order to do so.

"Cutting to the chase like always, I see. I won't keep you waiting anymore. Destroy our enemies, Machamp!"

The four-armed Pokemon materialized a couple meters above the deck and, while falling, stretched out its lowers arms to land more lightly. The floorboards still broke a little, but the beast didn't care about it. Instead, it moved it opened its arms so that they looked like an "X" while roaring loudly. After that, both the Pokemon and their trainers stared each other down for a good couple seconds, which was actually a time during which they were trying to predict what the other ones would do.

Since the men knew well about the tactics the other one used in the past, it was hard for either of them make the beginning move. Even if one of them arrived at a good plan at that moment, it was not possible to put it into action. Suddenly, the whole ship shook. Since both men were so concentrated, they didn't get a chance to catch onto the railing and both fell down. When Surge got up, he started looking around for an explanation as to what just happened, but it seemed like Faust already knew since he began laughing again.

"What's going on here?!" Surge yelled at him.

He soon got his answer when he noticed that something was obscuring the moonlight from reaching them. He couldn't clearly tell what it was but it looked like some enormous, grey snake. The leader quickly called out his Magneton and used it to fly to a higher place. When he landed on one of the roofs, he realized with a terrified expression that St. Anne has just been stopped enveloped by tentacles of an abnormally large Tentacruel who seemed to have a metallic dome attached to the top of its body.

"So that's how they plan to escape?!"

"Owww. Did we finally hit an island or something?" a voice came from below.

Surge carefully descended from the roof to see who it was. Since he never met him before, when he saw Red, who was bleeding from his forehead, he took him as one of the passengers.

"Are you alright?" the leader asked.

"Uh... Yeah. I just hit my head when the ship started shaking. Do you know what's going on? Are we going to sink?" the boy said while looking around, with Eevee hanging from his arm.

"No... At least not yet, I hope. But you shouldn't be wandering around the ship anyway. I have two big problems to deal with. I can't do that and protect you, so you should hide somewhere."

"Hide? What are you talking about? I have to find..." Red stopped since he just then saw what was happening "...What the hell is that giant thing?!"

"That's what I was trying to..."

"Aaah! He's down there!" the boy yelled after seeing Faust a little below them "Oh man. How am I gonna deal with him and that big whatever it is all alone? What is Green doing during all this?"

"Calm down!" Surge shook him by grabbing the only sleeve the teenager still had "Why are you talking like you came here to save the day?! Who are you?!"

"Who am I?! More like, who are you?!"

Suddenly, they had to stop talking when they realized that the giant Tentacruel raised one of its tentacles and sent it in their direction. It wasn't terribly fast, but they still barely dodged it because of its massive size. They jumped lower and landed right next to Faust whom they immediately noticed to be holding a communication device.

"I thought the communications were jammed." Red tried to wrap his head around what was happening while getting himself up from the floor.

"Only short length communications, and not all of them. Our scientist made sure there was wavelength that I could use to contact our mobile aquatic base. But even if you found out what that wavelength was, it wouldn't help you." explained Eisen.

"What do you want to accomplish here? Right now, my people are fighting against yours." said Lt. Surge.

"My people too. I managed to free a group of cooks and, from what I have seen, right now the whole ship is in chaos. The only problems now are you and that oversized squid." added Red.

"Yes. It seems like this is a loss for us. There's no sense in trying to get the items put up for auction. That's why I'll contact the ones in our base and have them crush this ship by using Tentacruel... As soon as I deal with you two, that is."

"You should count again." a familiar voice sounded from above.

The three of them looked up and saw Green and Phantom Venin descending from the sky while hanging onto the latter's Golbat. They landed halfway between the gangster and their allies. Red immediately ran over to them and hugged Green.

"You're safe!" he shouted "You don't know how worried I've been!"

"Stop clinging onto me. Besides, you look like you've been to hell and back. How reckless were you?" responded his rival.

"And you returned?" Red completely ignored Green's remark, instead turning his attention to the Phantom who tried to hide how embarrassed he was, since Red seemed to regain his trust towards him.

"I... Yeah, I'm back. But how did the situation turn into this?!" the thief asked while pointing above giant tentacles slowly moving above them.

Red shrugged "Welllll... We just have to beat that thing."

"I don't think you understand what the word "just" mea..." the Phantom started, but was immediately interrupted by a mix of wind, electricity and a loud sound, which caused him to flinch.

When he looked to the side, he realized that he was saved, probably at the last second, by Lt. Surge's Raichu who stopped Machamp's punch with his Volt Tackle. The four-armed Pokemon jumped back.

"What is wrong with you people?!" shouted Lt. Surge "This isn't a goddamn tea party where you can just chit-chat all you like. If you aren't gonna fight, get the hell out of here!"

"Alright." Green assumed a more serious expression as he began to analyze the situation "Red!"

"Yes?"

"Can you handle this guy by yourself?" the rival asked while pointing towards Faust.

Red hesitated a little, but after looking at Eevee, he grew in confidence "Absolutely!"

After saying that, he stepped in front of Surge and his Pokemon who were clearly ready to begin fighting against Machamp.

"What are you on about?!" the leader yelled angrily at Green.

"Red doesn't have any flying Pokemon so he can't get high enough to deal with that. We're gonna need you and your Magneton!"

While the two of them were occupied with that, Red released Charmander and Magikarp from their pokeballs and eyed down Eisen.

"Huh... So you return for more. I see that you've also began to crave for battle." Faust smiled while licking his lip, looking more fierce than the boy remembered.

Meanwhile, the other three already flew up to a significant height. Surge and Raichu held onto Magneton, Phantom Venin yet again attached Golbat to his back while also lending his Porygon to Green. As they ascended even more, Green glanced towards the entrance to the corridor where they left Jon to protect Fille, since having them there for the fight against the Tentacruel would be too troublesome.

"This place will be your grave, boy!" Faust shouted "Machamp, kill them all!"

The fighting Pokemon didn't need any more orders. It used Bulk Up to pump itself up even more before starting to run towards the group of enemies.

"Charmander, Smokescreen!"

The lizard released from his mouth a dark cloud which surrounded and blinded their opponent.

"This again?!" shouted Faust who, although Red couldn't see him, sounded like he was getting impatient "If you think you're gonna run away again, you're mistaken!"

Machamp started blindly attacking in random directions. Using his keen fighting sense, he knew that the foes were somewhere close to him so he decided to put his luck to a test.

"For someone that strong, that guy doesn't seem very smart." Red commented to Charmander who was patiently waiting in front of his trainer "If he was, he would knew this was a set up for our next move. We talked about it for like 30 seconds while running here so let's hope for the best... Eevee, use Quick Attack Version C!"

The dog began running in circles around their opponent just like he would while preparing for Mirror Room, but at a precisely right moment, Magikarp also jumped into the fray. The water Pokemon used Bounce. Eevee was running in patterns that would allow the fish to use him as a platform to bounce back right after hitting the opponent. Since the speed of Bounce grew exponentially, the dog also had to give it his all by keeping up. At that point, both of them were so focused that they couldn't even tell if they attacks were damaging the Machamp. They only learned of their success when the fighting Pokemon's guard broke down and one of the attacks caused him to fly a couple meters up and crash into the floor with a huge impact. When they saw that, they stopped. The two of them were breathing heavily while also looking satisfied with what they accomplished. Meanwhile, their trainer looked at Faust's shocked face through the dissipating cloud while announcing this new combination's name "Bouncy Castle!"

The gangster gathered himself surprisingly quick and, while coldly staring down Red, ordered his Pokemon "Machamp. Get up this instant."

The four-armed monster didn't move for a short while, making Red unsure of how he should proceed but when he saw that it began using two of its arms to prop itself up while getting to a sitting position, he immediately gave another command "Charmander, Flame Charge!"

The fighting Pokemon saw his opponent approaching but still hasn't recovered from the previous attack, so the scorching tackle from the lizard knocked it back, further destroying the floor. It got through the pain and managed to use one of its arms to take a swing at Charmander who was standing on its chest, but thanks to the effect of Flame Charge, the fire Pokemon was fast enough to do a backwards somersault and use Ember to shoot at the opponent while in air, causing Machamp to be set on fire.

Faust wiped sweat from his forehead but tried to remain calm "Machamp... Get. Up."

The Pokemon used its sheer will to get through the pain and while roaring loudly, it used all of its arms to free himself from being stuck in the floor and to go up a couple meters into air. While there, it used another Bulk Up. While still burning, with fury in its eyes, it assumed the stance used for Cross Chop as it began falling towards Red. The boy tried to jump back but was too slow.

He closed his eyes in fear and felt something hit him before he fell to the floor. It was less painful than he thought it would be, but when he opened his eyes, he saw the reason for that. Magikarp must have used Bounce to jump in front of him and the thing he felt was the fish's body falling on top of him. The water Pokemon lost consciousness from that powerful hit, so the boy immediately returned it to its pokeball and looked at Machamp who, instantly after defeating one opponent, decided to change its target and started running towards Charmander who was somewhere behind it.

.   .   .

While Red's battle was taking place, Green and the others managed to get up high enough that they would have a good view of the dome on Tentacruel's head. The one's controlling it must have recognized them as a threat since a couple giant tentacles started immediately moving in their direction. The three of them managed to swerve and avoid them since their speed was less worrisome than their size.

"So? You acted like you have some kind of plan, boy genius?" Phantom Venin asked while looking at Green.

"I swear, if you call me "boy genius" again, I will chokeslam you." the boy answered without actually showing any anger.

"Wait, what?"

"More importantly..." Green continued while ignoring the Phantom "...You just have to get inside while we distract Tentacruel."

The thief looked in direction of the dome, trying to understand what Green had in his mind, while dropping a little to avoid another tentacle attack "That's your plan? I know I'm the third best thief in the world but I think you're expecting a little too..."

"Abra, then Clefable and Gastly."

"Wha-? I..." the Phantom stopped for a short while to decipher why the teenager listed his Pokemon in that order, and when he finally reached a conclusion he immediately took out one of his pokeballs "Alright. I've got it. Go, Abra!"

The psychic Pokemon got a big scare when it realized how high it was released but calmed down when it saw that it was held in its trainer's arms.

"Teleport us over there." the thief ordered while pointing towards the dome.

Before he could tell, they were already standing on top of the metal building. From up close, it seemed smaller than what he first thought. He was about to take out the next two pokeballs when he saw two parts of the dome raise and reveal what looked like guns pointed at him. Both of them shot out what looked like electrified nets, but using clever maneuvering and Golbat's Air Slash, he managed to come out unscathed. Without wasting any more time, he sent Clefable and Gastly out of their pokeballs. Both of them managed to slip into the dome, hopefully without being noticed, the first one by using its Minimize trick and the other thanks to its gaseous form allowing it to fit between the plating.

After a couple moments, a hatch in the middle of the dome, which hand no handles or any other way to get in manually from the outside, opened, revealing Clefable who used its fingers to make a victory sign to its trainer. The Phantom jumped inside and looked at three members of Darkness Gang who were knocked out thanks to his Pokemon. He went towards the console which must have been responsible for controlling the giant Pokemon since it showed various graphs focused on its state and responsiveness.

"Soooo... If I smash this thing, it'll stop following its directive or whatever and go away? Then let's get to it!" after saying that, he lifted his leg and smashed it down into the machinery, causing a wave of electrical discharges to run through the entire thing. Thankfully, he had rubber shoes which prevented him from getting zapped.

"Oookay. Now what?"

Suddenly, the dome started to shake, and before he could grab onto something, the thief landed on the floor. He quickly hid all of the Pokemon beside Golbat in their pokeballs before going outside through the hatch to check out what was going on. When he saw one of the tentacles about to smash him and the building, he ordered Golbat to give it its all, and the thief barely managed to escape and meet up with the other two who were also busy avoiding the tentacles.

"What's going on?! I did what you wanted!" he yelled at Green.

"I guessed correctly that Darkness Gang couldn't control something so big but I was wrong in thinking it would just leave the ship alone after being freed. It probably realized that it was being controlled against its will and since we're the first ones it saw, it thinks we're responsible." explained the teenager.

"What now?!"

"We fight!" announced Lt. Surge.

When another tentacle moved in his direction, he took out a knife and used it to stab into the giant Pokemon so that he could hang onto it. He soon took out another knife to get himself a better hold. All this time, Raichu was grabbing onto its trainer's leg.

"Raichu, use Volt Tackle!"

The electric Pokemon climbed the leader's body and struggled for a while to not be thrown off from the tentacle, but after getting a good grip on the situation, it caused it's body to be covered in electricity as it run towards Tentacruel's head at an amazing speed, finally delivering a powerful attack. The giant beast seemed to notice it, and even felt the pain, but it was probably like a human being hit with a ping-pong ball.

Nonetheless, the leader managed to get its attention. In fact, he hoped that it would be too focused on fighting him and the other two trainers to deal any damage to the ship. Unfortunately for them, after noticing that Lt. Surge was climbing of the tentacles, it started swinging it around, finally deciding that the best way to get rid of him would be to crush him into the ship. The leader managed to jump off, and after losing sight of him, the water Pokemon lifted the tentacle from the hole it made in one of the roofs.

"I haven't felt a thrill like this in a long time." Surge said to himself happily after jumping down into the corridor bellow, since he didn't want the opponent to see him approaching.

It turned out that Raichu was also thrown off and followed him inside the ship.

"What is going on out there?" the leader heard a familiar voice while trying to guess the quickest way back to the place above which the battle was taking place.

It was Michael and a couple of the people who came with him from Vermilion, including Blue, who previously disappeared, with a Zubat sitting on her shoulder.

"How do I say this? We're... fighting like a main boss from a video game, while also having one person fight a real main boss." the leader answered.

Blue stepped in front of the group, visibly worried "Is there a boy called Red fighting together with you?"

"Uh... Yeah. Kinda. We have to stop the giant monster so he's alone right... And there she goes..." before the man could finish, the girl already ran off as fast as she could "...But what about you guys? Have you handled the other ones?"

"It seems so." said the sailor "We've also managed to find the device which was jamming communications so I'm in contact with the control room. They'll let me know if they manage to regain control of the ship."

"Okay then. Can you lend me your communicator?"

"What for?" the sailor asked, even though he was already handing over the device.

"I think there is something that may help us."

"Do you want us to come with you?"

"No, no. We'll deal with this somehow. You have to search the ship for any injured people. I saw a person who hit themselves in the head during that shaking before. We don't know if someone hasn't been badly wounded in some way."

"Yes, Sir!" Michael and the others saluted the leader before splitting up to search for anybody who could need help.

Meanwhile, Lt. Surge followed in Blue's footsteps, although he almost lost sight of her.

.   .   .

"Charmander, run away!" Even though there was little time, Red made sure to give an order which made it clear that the lizard was supposed to escape the oncoming attack on foot, rather than through air.

The fire Pokemon listened and started sprinting with its increased speed being enough to dodge the swings of Machamp's punches, but instead of avoiding it completely, he went between the opponent's legs and used his claws on both of them before ending up on the other side and stopping himself by scratching up the floor. The fighting Pokemon slowly turned around, while looking menacingly. Before it had a chance to do anything, something flashed before its eyes and it turned its head to see what it was. Phantom Venin looked at it with a big grin while starting to ascend as a part of what looked like an arch fly-by.

Machamp barely had a chance to look in the other direction when it heard something else approaching. One of Tentacruel's tentacles, probably trying to follow the thief, came down in a swinging motion. Red and his Pokemon, as well as Faust, were far enough that they only felt the rippling wind, but Machamp had nowhere to run and took the full force of the hit. It swept it up and sent it somewhere high and far, beyond anyone's sight. They stood there for a short while, with their mouths ajar, not able to believe what just happened.

Finally, Red turned towards the gangster "Sooo... You've got any more Pokemon?"

Judging from how embarrassed and angry the man looked, the boy deduced that, in some weird way, the victory was his. Then, Eisen tried to run away but without needing to receive any orders, Charmander enveloped itself in fire and, in an instant, he and Eevee used Flame Charge and Quick Attack to deliver powerful blows to the back of the criminal, which sent him into a wall. He lost consciousness and about half of his teeth before falling to the floor. Red came up to check if he was still breathing, since he had a nasty nosebleed and a bruised face, but it seemed like he would recover.

"That was kinda unsatisfying." stated the trainer.

He looked around for a while, and after finding one of the tentacles which were holding onto the ship, specifically the one closest to where he was, he returned his Pokemon to their pokeballs to give them a little rest before he started running there. Mere seconds after he disappeared by jumping over a railing, Blue reached the place in which the boy just was, but after seeing that nobody was there, she ignored the signs of the battle that just took place, and continued further through the door next to which was the unconscious Faust.

.   .   .

"Why did you fly so low?" Green asked while his path crossed with the Phantom's, while both of them were trying to avoid the tentacles.

"I just lent some help to our ally. But I guess he won't be joining us since you said he doesn't have a flying Pokemon." responded the thief.

"Seeing how reckless he's been all day, I wouldn't be surprised if..." the boy had to stop for a short while since the incoming attack separated him from the other person even though both of them managed to avoid it quite easily.

"What were you saying?"

"Red seemed like he fought as if he didn't care what would happen to him." Green changed the sentence to another one that would make more sense and since he felt what he wanted to say at first could influence what was going to happen in some inexplicable way.

"Is he always like that?"

"Hard to tell. I met him twice before but today is the most time we spent together. Although, during our first meeting he was being chased by a bunch of Spearow's, fell in a river and was almost to be pecked to death before I arrived."

Phantom Venin looked as if he started to consider if Red was right in the mind. While using Golbat to blow away one of the tentacles with a Wing Attack, he asked "But what were you going to say?"

"I... Uh... I just wanted to joke that if Red's fight is over, he will probably run up one of those tentacles, kinda like Lt. Surge but I don't think even he would be that cra..." while talking, something caught Green's attention, and he almost lost his grip on the Porygon when he realized that he really should have kept his mouth shut.

It seemed like Red found the knives, which were shaken off by Tentacruel after being left in him by the Gym leader, and was using them in a similar manner, but moving much slower since he had to climb vertically, although seemingly easier since it wasn't one of the tentacles used for fighting. Green was so amazed by this that he didn't notice an approaching attack in time and although he wasn't hit, he opened his hands and started falling down. Porygon tried to catch up to him, but the teenager remained calm and saved himself by calling onto his Ivysaur and using Vine Whip to catch onto a funnel. The two of them descended safely to a roof when suddenly they heard someone make a shocked sound.

"You followed me all the way here to get your money back?" Blue, to whom those words belonged, looked as if she was serious about that question.

Green looked at her in confusion since she took him off guard "Are you an idiot?"

"Are you trying to make me angry?"

Green ignored her when he saw Porygon approaching him "Whatever it is you want, I don't have time. I have to get back up there."

"Back up whe..." the girl's face went white when she saw the massive Pokemon and its many tentacles moving around in the sky "...What is thaaaaat?!"

"Ugh. So loud. How did you manage not to notice it?" he asked while covering his ears, before pointing Porygon to land since he came to the conclusion that it would be easier to sit on it instead of hanging onto it.

"I was super busy trying to find someboooo...! There he issss!" the girl shouted while pushing the boy aside since he was partially blocking her view of Red whom she noticed, already pretty high on the tentacle he was climbing.

"Can you..." Green didn't have time to give his next complain, since Blue suddenly pushed him off the Porygon he was trying to sit on and took the spot for herself "What are you doing?!"

"Fly!" the girl seemed so sure of what she wanted that the Pokemon felt like he couldn't refuse and immediately took off.

"Wait up! How am I..." Green stopped himself since he realized that from the place he was sitting on, he could see up her skirt, so he quickly turned his head "Wait... Was she...?"

Already raising above the funnels, Blue realized that contrary to what she thought previously, she didn't waste her time by stopping to "borrow" a swimsuit from one of the shops on the ship, since she didn't want to worry about her skirt during battles, although she was already considering changing her wardrobe a little since she needed some better clothes for the upcoming, colder months.

.   .   .

Just as Lt. Surge arrived near where Tentacruel's main body was hovering over, he heard a buzzing sound near his belt. He reached for the communicator he borrowed from Michael "This is Lt. Surge, the Gym leader of Vermilion City, speaking. What's going on?"

"Yes. We've heard from one of ours that the people on land sent you here, Sir." said the person on the other end "We've got some news. We've managed to repair the damages, at least for now and we should be able to change our course but something is weighing us down. We can't see what it is but we won't be able to move unless we get rid of it."

The leader looked up at their foe while thinking over a plan he came up with earlier "How fast are we going?"

"Excuse me?"

"I don't care about knots. Just give me a percentage."

"Uh... About 30% of our maximum speed? But why?"

"Go full speed." Surge said while grinning since his prediction could come true.

"But, I... We don't know if the ship can take it... We may lose control again if we do it..."

"Just do as I say, soldier!"

"Aaah! Yes, Sir!" the person on the other end sounded afraid, but right after that, they began using the machinery, judging by the noises that the leader could hear over the communicator.

"It's... It's working! We are beginning to move towards Vermilion City again! I..."

Suddenly, the other person stopped talking and all Surge could hear was white noise. There could be a number for reasons for that, including another jamming device being turned on, or the ship controls malfunctioning due to strain they were putting on them. But the important part was that they were moving towards Vermilion City since that was the only thing needed for Surge's plan, which was to run the ship into land a safe distance from the city. He suspected that the monster would either be knocked out or that after realizing his disadvantage on land, it would give up and go back into the sea.

"Okay. Now it's time to get back into the action." he said before blowing as hard as he could into a whistle he took out from his pocket.

Thanks to that, Magneton, who was until then assisting Phantom Venin, swooped down and without stopping for a second, allowed its trainer and Raichu to grab onto it. Soon, they were back in the sky again, just in time to meet up with Blue who arrived on Porygon.

"Blue? So this is where you went?"

"You know her?" the Phantom asked while making a barrel roll to avoid a tentacle "And why is she riding my Porygon?"

"I don't have time for you. Where did he disappear to?"

"Who are you talking about?" the thief tried to stay calm, although her attitude was getting a little on his nerves.

"I'm talking about Red. I saw him climbing one of the tentacles but now I can't tell which one it was."

"Speaking about tentacles..." Lt. Surge looked around "...did they stop?"

The other ones also realized that fact, so to gain an understanding of why that happened, all of them directed their eyes towards Tentacruel's main body. The giant Pokemon was blinking nervously and trying to look at something in different ways, similar to how a human would do if he wasn't sure that something was on their nose. Blue focused her eyes before giving out a gasp of surprise. The reason she couldn't see Red was that he was standing in the shadow cast by the upper part of Tentacruel's body, atop the highest point of its front horn, barely visible to them and to the enemy.

"Is he really that crazy? Green said that Red has no flying Pokemon. If he falls, he's done." commented the Phantom who looked as worried as if he himself was in the boy's situation.

"Porygon, we must go forwa..."

"Wait!" Lt. Surge shouted to stop the girl from interfering "I thinks he has a plan."

"What do you mean?" the thief wondered.

"If he's that close, Tentacurel can't hit him without risking injuring one of its eyes."

After hearing that, everybody decided to give Red a chance to do what he wanted. During they short talk, he released Eevee and Charmander from their pokeballs and was already giving them instructions.

"Alright! Let's go!"

At Red's command, Charmander began using Smokescreen in much larger quantity than usual to make sure that it would get in Tentacruel's way. To get rid of the clouds of black smoke, the water Pokemon brought two of its tentacles close to its face and started slowly moving them up and down to regain his vision, but Red's team was waiting exactly for that. After deciding that it would be better to focus on only one tentacle, Eevee used a Superstar to hit it since, the monster proably wouldn't even feel a normal Swift. After that, Charmander set himself on fire and at the exact same moment, all of them lept towards the tentacle hit by the dog.

Charmander used Flame Charge, Eevee used Quick Attack while Red just put all of his strength into a punch. Their combined effort managed to push the tentacle off its course and cause it to stab Tentacruel in the eye. The water Pokemon cried out in pain so loudly that the observers had to cover their ears. But during that, Blue noticed that although Red returned his Pokemon back to their balls, he was about to crush into a roof. She kicked Porygon's side to make order him in that direction since he wouldn't be able to hear her, but even though it listened, she knew she was too far away.

"After giving that some thought, this wasn't such a good plan." the boy said to himself while only a couple meters off the ground.

"No shit." Red heard just as he felt something wrap around his leg, causing him to stop only around 40 centimeters from the roof.

Although he was upside down, he immediately recognized Green and his Ivysaur who saved him from certain death.

"You can let him down." Green ordered his Pokemon who retracted his vine, promptly causing Red to drop on the roof, after which the boy helped his rival get up "At least it seems like your plan worked."

He pointed towards their opponent who was trying to move its body around as much as it was possible, which wasn't a lot, all because its right eye was hurt so badly that it was using the left one in order to find the one responsible for its injury.

"Any more bright ideas?" Green asked with a slight smile, since after such a stunt, he was sure that whatever his friend would come up with next would be even crazier.

Suddenly, Red's Eevee went outside of his pokeball on his own, much to surprise of both boys. The Pokemon looked as if he was in a trance when he approached Green. The teenager kneeled down to see what was going on. The dog sniffed around and barked at the pocket of the boy's pants.

"Do you have something there?" Red asked while also getting down to better see what the whole thing was about.

"Just this." Green said while showing the Crystal Eye he got from Phantom Venin.

"Can I?" Red asked while reaching toward his rival who handed him the gem "Didn't the announcer at the auction say something about how the owner of the Crystal Eye can see the future?"

"Wha-? You think that's actually true? But it didn't do anything for me and, from what I saw, it also didn't help Phantom Venin. So why would it start working now?"

"Let me try this." Red said as he held the gem next to Eevee's head.

The dog's eyes and the gem itself started flashing in a variety of colors. The boys looked at it with amazed faces.

"See? The Eye didn't work because it needed a Pokemon."

"Even if Eevee can see the future, how is that going to help us?" Green was still skeptical.

Without saying a word, Red put his head on the other side of the gem as if in that way, some of Eevee's knowledge was supposed to be passed onto him. After some time, the light stopped and Eevee also returned to his normal self. The Crystal Eye started changing until it turned into a normal rock.

"What the hell just happened?" Green grabbed his head since thinking about a logical explanation for what just happened was too hard on him.

"What are you guys doing?" said the voice of Lt. Surge.

The boys looked at him and the others who just landed next to them since they were curious what was taking them so long on that roof. Blue, torn by happiness and embarrassment caused by seeing Red, hid behind the Phantom, hoping that her friend would be too focused on beating the giant Tentacruel to notice her, but she immediately caught his attention. He approached her quickly while pushing Phantom Venin out of the way. He hugged her tightly. At first she didn't know how to respond but when he pulled away and she saw his smile, she couldn't help but also smile herself.

"Your face. You're bleeding. And your clothes. You look terrible." she said while barely managing to keep in tears.

"Well, you look as good as always. But we don't have the time for that right now. I need you for my plan." he said while making a more serious face.

"Of course." she said after gathering herself since she remembered the situation they were in "I'll do whatever you need."

"Your Squirtle... No, it should be a Wartortle by now... It knows Rain Dance, right?"

"Yes. I thought it would be useful to teach it to him. And it evolved during my Gym battle today."

"Watch out!"

Before anyone could tell what was going, a sudden flash of flight blinded them just as they heard a loud sound of something being hit. When their vision returned, they saw Gallop who arrived to use Flame Wheel to knock away a tentacle that was about to hit them. The group looked to the side and saw Jon and the recovered Fille climbing onto the roof.

"Thanks for the save." said Green.

"No problem." answered Jon who went right to patting his steed for a job well done.

"Now, everyone needed for my plan is here," announced Red "Phantom Venin!"

"Yes?!" the thief stood at attention, although a little curious as to what his part was.

"You're the distraction!"

"Wait, what?"

"Go!"

"Alright ,alright. You don't have to shout at me!" the Phantom responed before taking to air using Golbat's power.

"The rest of you, hear me out."

The group gathered around Red to listen to his idea.

.   .   .

"Is it just me or is this guy speeding up?" Phantom Venin talked to calm himself down as he tried to get Tentacruel to focus solely on him "What are the others doing anyway?"

As if to answer his question, Blue's Zubat approached him and, by making various squeaky noises, communicated with the thief's Golbat that it was time to get fall back and leave the stage to others. The Phantom called Porygon and Gastly, who have been helping him out, into their pokeballs before landing on a different move to which the rest of the group seemed to have moved to, to which he deduced that it was probably to have a better position to execute their plan since the place they gathered in was straight across from the opponent.

"Are you ready?!" Red yelled while looking at all of them.

He was answered by a resounding cheer from all beside the Phantom who was still in the dark as to what their plan was.

"The first step belongs to us." Lt. Surge said while looking at Blue.

The girl nodded and after that, both of them put their hands forward as if trying to reach the tentacles that began approaching them en masse after Tentacruel followed the Phantom's flight. The leader's Magneton flew towards the oncoming attacks with the girl's Bellsprout hanging from it upside down. When the tentacles tried to reach them, Magneton sent out Magnet Bomb's, one for each of the limbs that were in the way. When they stuck to their targets, Magneton used its magnetic abilities to cause them to be pushed away before causing the bombs to detonate, creating a cavalcade of explosions. When the enemy was stunned by that move, he was about to learn the true meaning of that word when Bellsprout released Stun Spore, causing the tentacles to freeze in place and leaving a clear path for the others.

After doing their part, the duo of Pokemon moved out of the way. The monstrous foe was confused by the sensations that came over his body but something even stranger got his attention as he looked at the sky above which began to change. The cause of that were the efforts put forward by Red's Oddish and Blue's Wartortle who were using Sunny Day and Rain Dance respectively. And although it was the middle of the night, a ray of sunlight appeared above them with a rainy cloud right beside it.

It was like the sky split into two parts but only above that ship. Green's Ivysaur, Red's Charmander stood in the sunny part while Surge's Raichu placed himself in the rain. Set up in that way, the Pokemon received the positive effects of the weather. Charmander and Gallop felt their powers grow, which was doubly true for the lizard since after all the battling, his ability also kicked in. Ivysaur almost immediately gathered a much larger amount of energy than he would when normally preparing his bulb.

"Our path is clear! Our victory is certain! It's time to unite in this finishing move!" Red couldn't stop his excitement about the tactic he came up with "Charmander, Ember!"

Although Red didn't have time to notice it since everything happened so quickly, the power up his Pokemon got at that time gave him so much power that his attack changed into Flamethrower.

"Ivysaur, Solar Beam!"

"Gallop, Fire Blast!"

"Raichu, Thunder!"

The four attacks shot out simultaneously and converged in one place but instead of interfering, somehow managed to combine and turn into one, pure white beam which travelled towards at the enemy at an astonishing speed. Red managed to add the name he came up with for this attack at the exact moment it reached its target "Rainbow Cannon!"

The name referred to the rainbow which formed above the ship due to the combination of sunlight and rain. What was unexpected was that the explosion caused by the attack hitting their opponent was also made up of the seven colors.

Before the cloud of dust could set, Lt. Surge put his hand on Red's shoulder to signify that he was proud and thankful that he could be part of the boy's plan "That was something else. But how did you know that it would defeat Tentacruel?"

"I didn't." the teenager responded.

"What? You didn't?"

"Because it didn't. It didn't defeat it, I mean." Red said while pointing towards their opponent who started to be visible again.

The leader took a step back when he saw that the monster, although visibly damaged by their attack, was even angrier than before, even though it was still too paralyzed to do anything to them. It also couldn't keep itself up in the air anymore and fell down but still could hang onto the ship while being in front of it with only half of its head visible.

"Then what the hell was your plan for?!" Surge yelled at the boy.

"Well, I wanted to weaken him so that the iceberg would be enough to finish him off. If we were to fight him longer, we would definitely lose."

"Wait up. Iceberg?"

As if in response to the leader's question, the ship shook even more fiercely than when Tentacruel first grabbed onto it. Jon caught Fille who slipped and was about to fall. The girl blushed a little before jumping right back on her feet. During this, Surge's Magneton returned to its trainer and after letting Bellsprout down, allowed the man to fly up with itself. From air he could see that St. Anne was swimming through a small group of icebergs and luck would have it that thanks to Red' plan, Tentacruel took the brunt of a crush that would otherwise probably sink the ship.

The boat changed course a little and their opponent slowly slipped into the ocean. It seemed to still be conscious but much too weak to bother with chasing after them so instead it went straight underwater probably to never try to face any human again. The leader landed on the roof and immediately dropped to the floor, sweating all over his face, since he couldn't understand how Red was able to predict what would happen and was too afraid to ask. The weirdest part was that the thing with the iceberg was similar to how he wanted to beach the Tentacruel near Vermilion City.

"...Surge... Lt. Surge!" he heard from somewhere but was too overwhelmed to know if it was a real voice or not.

"It seems your comm is going off." pointed out Green.

The man quickly took it out of his pocket and responed "Yes? It's me."

"This is the control room. We have good news. Although us going into full speed caused the controls to get stuck and we thought we would crush into Vermilion, whatever just happened out there damaged the machinery just enough that we returned to the previous speed and will be able to control it enough to safely bring us to the port. How are things on your end, Sir?"

"Just... great." he answered before turning off the communicator and laying his whole body on the roof, allowing himself a big smile.

The others also heard the news. Jon was so happy that he accidentally lifted Fille with both his arms. For a second, she wondered about how her feelings changed throughout the whole experience and realized that that her heart skipped a bit several times and it wasn't because she was charmed by Red or Jon but because she never had so much experience involving Pokemon. Although, she still felt like Jon could make for a good boyfriend and that she should try to talk with her father about it since he seemed to get along with Jon's parent.

Meanwhile, Red, who followed the Phantom who was trying to sneak off, spoke up "Running away?"

The thief felt a shiver run down his spine as he carefully turned around to look at the teenager "Are we really going to do this? You look like you're about to pass out and I'm pretty tired myself. Besides I've given you guys back the gem, so if this is like a matter of honor thing I'm..."

He stopped when he saw that Red was reaching towards him with a handshake. He looked at the boy's hand and then back up to his face in confusion.

"If you ever try to steal anything when I'm around, I promise that I will stop you."

Phantom Venin smiled and grabbed Red's hand "You're on. If I ever lose to you, I'll stop calling myself the third best thief in the world."

"I've been wondering about that. Why are you "the third"? Who is the second?"

"Oh. That's my master. He taught me everything I know."

"And the first?"

The Phantom seemed to suddenly have a nostalgic look in his eyes "Well... That's someone even more amazing."

After that, the thief gathered himself and, using Golbat's wings, disappeared into the night sky.

Red turned around and saw Green waiting for him. Realizing that he must have seen the whole thing, judging by his rival's slight smile, Red also got a big grin on his face. Yet after reuniting with the rest of the group, he realized that Blue disappeared somewhere. He tried asking Lt. Surge about it but the leader knew only that the girl was going to go rest somewhere.

Red knew that wasn't the truth. Although when they talked they seemed to get along as much as they did when they travelled together, the girl seemed worried about meeting him again, especially since they didn't get any time to talk the whole thing over. Red just hoped that they would be able to see each other soon and discuss the whole thing. But at that moment he just wanted to rest so he sat down and together with his Pokemon and friends, looked at the starry sky as they slowly moved towards the port.

"Soooo... Is anybody else curious why there was an iceberg in the sea?" Green asked, but the rest seemed to ignore him since they were too tired out.

.   .   .

About two days after the exhausting ship adventure, Phantom Venin met up with his associates who freed the famous collector after receiving a message that their leader's mission was done. They set up a temporary base at which they waited for the Phantom. One of them was an old man who looked like a typical butler and was even serving tea and cookies as the thief walked into the room.

"How's it going everybody?" he asked while munching on one of the cookies.

"Don't give us that!" a young, female voice came from a dark corner of the room "You said that you failed to get the Crystal something or other, and after we went to all this trouble!"

"But I gained something even better."

"And what is that?" she sounded rather skeptical.

"A rival." he responed cheerfully.

"What?! But I'm your rival! How is that even..."

"Yeah, yeah." the Phantom just waved his hand to tell her to stop since he knew how heated up she could get "Sebastian, give me the map."

The old man reached into a cabinet and took out a piece of paper which Phantom Venin unrolled in front of him. It showed a large part of the world with an amazing number of regions, including far off lands that people in Kanto probably never heard about.

"We'll return to this place next year." he said while reaching into his bag and taking out a small, silver coin "Now, let's decide where our next heist is gonna be."

He flipped the coin into air where it spun for a second before landing on the map. He picked it up and looked at the name of the place.

"So... Fiore it is."

* * *

 

That was something else. I'll try to be brief since you already had to read through all that(well, you didn't have to but you know what I mean).

I have a bad habit of adding to the story anything I come up at the moment of writing. In the original plan for the chapter the only characters that were supposed to appear were Red, Green, Phantom Venin and Darkness Gang. All the other ones were added since I felt it wouldn't be interesting enough if I just had like a story where it went like: Red and Green are hired - Auction begins, the Phantom appears - Darkness Gang appears - Red and Green get help from the Phantom - End. But even If I like all the stuff with Jon, Fille and my set up for the next time Red and Blue meet, there were still parts where after I wrote them I was like "Why did I write about furniture for like 5 minutes?" Or that part which seems like I'm giving a lecture about resonable drinking(I don't drink much anymore but when I did I almost always got wasted so it's not like I'm anyone to talk, haha) But I guess that's just how I am.

Some quick interesting facts. At first, I wanted to name Superstar "Ride on Shooting Star" like The Pillows song but I forgot about it when it came to that part and at first I was thinking that it always would be a combination move but later Eevee used it by himself so the original name wouldn't fit. Since the most famous phantom thief, Lupin, is from France, I decided to give my phantom thief a french name. That is why he's Venin which means venom. I used that to come up with names for other characters. Jon Quille Laiteron means Daffodil Milkweed in french. Fleur in Fleurland stands for flower. Fille means girl in french(I got really lazy with this one). Although you probably already forgot about him, there was a character called Rajul Muhimun whose name means important man in arabic. His kingdom's name, Rimal Hara, stands for Hot Sands. Faust Eisen is german for fist iron. I wanted him to have a cool name and german has some neat sounding words so I tried it out and it worked perfectly.

I tried my best but I'm still worried that there is too much exposition in some places and too much action in other ones. Like, really Faust? Who the hell cares about your stupid war? I might actually write some side story about it in the future if I have a good idea for it. I definitely won't write about Phantom Venin's adventures in Fiore but just like he said, he will return to Kanto in the next year. It will be another special chapter(hopefully shorter than this one) and will happen like 30-40 chapters from now. It will reveal more about the Phantom's past and why he's called the third best thief in the world. Btw. this chapter took place in late august/early september so it was still summer but Red and the others will definitely change clothes in the upcoming chapters and there may even be a Christmas-esque chapter when we reach december.

I don't remember anything else I wanted to talk about. The next chapter will tie up some loose ends from this one.

 

Red. Team: Eevee, Charmander, Pikachu, Oddish, Magikarp.

Badges: 2

Green. Team: Ivysaur, Nidorina, Jigglypuff, Hitmonlee.

Badges: 2

Blue. Team: Bellsprout, Wartortle, Zubat.

Badges: 3

Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.

Angie. Team: ?, ?.

Peter. Team: ?, ?, ?.


	15. Chapter 14: Shoot to Chill.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter goes on a mission of utmost importance while Green pays Red a visit.

Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 14: Shoot to Chill.

"Go talk to him."

"No. You go talk to him."

"I don't wanna."

"But somebody has to tell him that we arrived."

"Well, it ain't gonna be me, that's for sure."

"Me neither."

The conversation was taking place between two Team Rocket members, one who was guarding a room and another who came with the information that they reached their destination. The small, dark ship they were aboard had to maneuver between the iceberg labyrinth which had less spaces to get through the closer they got to Seafoam Islands. While the twenty person crew of low ranking members were either performing their duties and preparing for the time they would reach land, there was one person who got a room of their own and didn't leave it for the several days since their journey started.

The last time they saw him, he was mostly getting angry at the fact that they couldn't take an aircraft since the islands consisted mostly of uneven, rocky terrains and mountains. They didn't know what he was doing in his room, but they've served under him long enough to know that even if they had an important message for him, he still would get angry if they interrupted him in something important. When the two people quietly argued on who would go inside, the door suddenly opened in front of them, causing both to step back in fear.

"What the hell are you waiting for? Are you that afraid of me?" said Peter, the Team Rocket admin who emerged from the inside of the dark room "If you waste any more of my time by arguing about useless bullshit, I'm going to push your faces against and iceberg until you stick to it and then pull them off, ripping your flesh. I'm gonna do it again and again till even your parents won't be able to recognize you."

Both of them froze in fear as they let him pass between them. One of them looked down to his pants. He was ready to deal with the shame of peeing themself as long as he was safe from Peter's infamous wrath.

"Is everybody ready?" the admin asked after reaching the outside where most of his crew were.

They silently saluted him.

"Alright. Let's catch that bastard."

.   .   .

"Good morning. I'm here to see... Red." Green had to make a short pause while talking to the woman in the hospital lobby since he realized that he didn't know his friend's last name and they usually needed that when searching on the computer for a patient's room.

"Are you here to see him or are you bringing a gift, Sir?" the nurse asked without looking away from him.

"Uuh... Both? But don't you need to look him up?" he asked, a little confused.

"Oh, no. He already had three people who came to visit him today. He's so popular we had to make one of the closets into a room for all the gifts he received in the last couple days." she explained.

Green didn't completely understand what was going on but he thought it would be easier if he went to the man himself if he wanted answers "So, can you tell me his room number?"

"If you want to see him immediately, he just went through the back doors to our park. He does Pokemon battle with other patients and visitors all the time... But don't tell that to the head nurse since she's rather strict." the last few words were whispered, probably because a woman, who just passed Green, was the person the receptionist was speaking about.

"Thanks for the help" Green said to the nurse while bowing before going for the back doors she mentioned.

The park behind the hospital was full of trees and flower bushes. The paved walkway had several benches and fairly short, black street lamps next to it, some occupied by patients, visitors or hospital workers who were on their break. Green noticed a board pointing out a couple rules such as prohibition of littering and smoking and it seemed like everyone adhered to them. The place was bigger than he would have suspected. While looking around no to miss Red by accident, he heard a noise coming from somewhere in front of him.

After he walked about 30 meters and rounded a big tree in the middle of the park, he saw a round square with a big fountain in the center and a couple benches on the outskirts of the circle. Just like he suspected, the one he was searching for was the person behind the noise he heard. Although still wearing a bandage around his head and dressed in hospital clothes, Red looked completely healthy as he commanded his Pikachu in a battle against a young boy and his Vulpix. The two Pokemon looked like in some kind of synchronized swimming show when jumping through the gaps between the streams of water shooting out from various places in the fountain, each trying to hit the other one while avoiding getting themselves wet.

Suddenly, Pikachu gained the upper hand by using Quick Attack to get behind his opponent and sending it into air. The fox had nowhere to escape while being struck by the rodent's Thunderbolt. The boy called his Pokemon back to its ball before it could hit the pavement. Red came up to him and thanked for the fight while also expressing his hopes for the boy growth as a Pokemon trainer. The child noticed that his father who came to visit his work friend was calling him since they were about to leave, so he bowed to his opponent before running away.

"Hey, Red." Green finally spoke up, since he didn't want to interrupt the fight.

Red let Pikachu jump onto his shoulder before turning towards his friend and greeting him with a handshake. He pointed towards a bench which had a plastic bag next to it and the both of them went over there to take a seat. Red reached into the bag and took out two small cartons of chocolate milk and gave one of them to his rival. Green was a little hesitant since he didn't usually consume sweets but after opening it and taking a sip, he remembered the feelings of how it was to be a little kid and how he always returned home from helping his grandfather and the first thing he would do was to take out a carton of flavored milk from the fridge.

"Sorry that it took me this long to visit you." he said after putting down the carton.

"No problem. I know you must have been busy. They put a guard in front of my room for the first two days since the reporters wouldn't leave, and some even tried to sneak in by pretending to be visitors." Red responded while feeding Pikachu some caramel candy.

"Yeeeah. That's definitely Lt. Surge's fault. Since people heard that he helped save St. Anne, he was invited to a news show and told everyone how it was you who played the biggest role in saving the ship and the city." while saying that, Green scratched himself on the back of the head, since he felt like he was somehow responsible because he refused to take part in any interviews.

"I mean, it's kinda great to get all this attention."

"It is?" Green felt relieved.

"Yeah. Since the ship was full of rich people, a lot of them visited me to give their thanks and it seemed like they didn't know a better way than giving me various gifts."

"Is this part of that too?" Green asked while holding up the chocolate milk.

"Yes. I think I have like half a ton of sweets from some guy who owns a factory that makes it. I've contacted Fille to have her help me in distributing it to orphanages and stuff since I probably won't be able to eat even 1% of that."

"That's understandable. How are they by the way?"

"Who?"

"Fille and Jon."

"Oh. I think they're gonna have an engagement party next week."

"Wait... What?" that statement took Green by surprise.

"I told them I can't attend since I want to get Lt. Surge's badge as soon as possible and try to catch up with Blue."

"Wait, wait, wait. They are getting married?"

"Who?"

"Fille and Jon!"

Red didn't understand why his friend was making such a big deal out of this "I guess? Like, don't you think they kinda fit each other? They're both good looking, both like Pokemon, and both are... Like a shell, sorta."

Green thought about it for a while and responded "Yeeeah... I guess I see what you mean."

He also wanted to ask about Blue, since Red mentioned her, but he stopped himself since he felt like he could say something inappropriate. He still didn't know what exactly the relationship between her and Red was but judging by how his rival acted around her, he had some suspicions that, he decided, would be better kept hidden. While trying to search for another topic, Green remembered something important.

"What about the Crystal Eye?"

"I still have it." Red said while taking out a pendant he had tied around his neck.

Inside of it was the rock which the gem turned into.

"So it didn't turn back."

"Why would it? We're not even sure why it became a stone in the first place."

"Well... Wasn't that because it used up its power by giving you and Eevee a vision of the future?"

Red fell silent for a couple second while making a blank expression "Did... Did something like that happen?"

"What?"

"Maybe it's because of my head injury but I don't completely remember everything from the cruise. But... There was something..."

"Something?"

"Yeah, yeah. There was darkness. And it changed into light. And then another light appeared."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Don't worry. I've also no idea." after saying that, he started laughing.

"And what about the captain?"

"I showed it to him but he said that I could keep it, since in this state nobody would want to buy it."

Green finished his carton of milk and threw it in a trash bin before getting up. He adjusted his clothes and said "Well, I better get going. I have something important to do. You better get out of here fast so You can catch up to the rest of us."

Red also stood up and looked his rival in the eye "Better watch out. One of these days I'll pass you."

After exchanging a fist bump, the young trainers parted ways.

.   .   .

Hearing someone knocking on the automatic door to his room, Alex slowly got up from his bed, without stopping watching the TV. He took his card and slid it through the electronic lock, opening the door for a visibly annoyed Angie. He glanced at her and seeing that she probably didn't want to come inside, grabbed her sleeve and pulled her inside since he wanted to watch the whole thing through.

"Let go of me, you fool." she grabbed him by the wrist with her other hand and pushed him away.

"Okay, okay. But whatever you want, be quick about it. I have to finish this." He said without a care.

"Is this some kind of joke? Nobody has seen you for a full day so your underlings got worried that you were sick and you're doing what... Watching TV? For this long?"

"It's not my fault. He's just on all the time."

"What are you talking about?" she raised her brow before deciding to learn herself by looking at what was happening on the screen.

It was a news show covering the St. Anne incident. Even though she didn't care about it personally, she heard some of the other Team Rocket members talking about it since it seemed like Darkness Gang, their biggest rivals, were heavily involved in the situation.

"I've heard that that battle-hungry cretin, Faust was there and managed to not get caught with the rest of the bunch. Are you trying to deduce what he..."

"What? I've no idea what you're talking about."

Angie began to lose patience "Then why are you watching this all-day?!"

"For him! It's him!" Alex answered while putting his finger right against the photograph of Red which was displayed in the corner of the screen.

Angie squinted her eyes as if she was supposed to recognize the person "Who is he?"

"He's the one I told you about! I fought him on Mt. Moon! He's done it again! He's the one who stopped Darkness Gang!"

"I guess he really must be strong. But you said you wanted to recruit him? Although I don't like it, people consider us a criminal organization, similar to Darkness Gang. It seems like he's trying to be some hero of justice by taking on us and them."

"Don't you worry your pretty, little head. The next time I meet him, I'm sure I'll be able to convince him to join us."

"We'll see." she said while a vein popped up on her forehead because of being called pretty by person whose attention was unwanted.

"But why would you even worry about me? It's not like there's anything to do today."

"No. But I got intel that Peter managed to find the location of M2 and is probably trying to catch it right now."

"That bastard!" Alex clenched his fists "If he does it, the boss will surely make him his right hand."

"Yes. So while it's unbecoming of a Team Rocket admin, all we can do is hope that he fails. I don't want you to succeed either. I just didn't want to deal with this anger alone."

"Oh. Alright..."

The girl left the room and the door closed behind her. Alex jumped back on his bed and started to watch TV again, but suddenly he began to turn from side to side while trying to contain his irritation with both of the other admins.

"Gaaah!"

.   .   .

Peter looked down towards the group of underlings who were slowly climbing the mountain. It wasn't so steep that they would need special equipment, even though they brought it, but they still had to be careful since a lot of it was covered in ice and there was a long way down. The admin overcame that problem by riding atop his Dodrio who could easily judge which places were the best to step onto and quickly managed to get about 200 meters above the rest of the group.

His search was fairly easy since he had the idea of asking Doctor Humane of a way to locate M2. The scientist gave him a device which was used to measure the experiments psychic powers and could locate it from practically any distance whenever it used its abilities in a big way. Though, the doctor, who could not join the searching party because of the injuries he sustained in the explosion, warned Peter that whatever caused M2 to use its powers, could prove to be an even bigger problem than the experiment itself.

As he reached the top of the mountain, the criminal had to tightly grab onto his Pokemon to not be knocked off by a sudden gust of freezing wind. He gathered himself and looked forward with the use of goggles, since the peak was surrounded by a snowstorm which certainly didn't seem natural. The man could see some silhouettes but it was hard to tell what they were. He ordered his Pokemon to carefully approach but as he got closer, a wave of energy pushed them back, together with all the snow, causing the sky to become clear. He took off the goggles and looked at the scene, painted in front, of him in astonishment. The one he was searching for, Mewtwo was kneeling down on one leg and trying to catch his breath, but it also looked weirdly satisfied. Opposite of him was a blue bird, bigger than any flying species Peter ever saw. It looked similarly tired.

When Peter jumped off his Dodrio so he could approach them, they both turned their heads towards him in an instant and neither looked particularly thrilled about his arrival. Mewtwo got up and approached him. It used its telekinetic abilities to pick the man up while making a gesture as if it was grabbing him by the neck. Seeing that, Dodrio tried to help its trainer but before it realized what was happening, the other bird shout out an Ice Beam from its beak, which glued Dodrio's legs to the mountain. Mewtwo closed its eyes and looked like it was focusing on something.

"What... are... you... doing... here... human?" Peter heard a menacing voice speak from nowhere, as if it originated in his head.

Since he didn't respond, Mewtwo opened its eyes and glared at the man. Although it was hard to believe, the criminal arrived at the conclusion that the one who spoke to him was the Pokemon in front of him.

"Of course. Doctor Humane said something about telepathy. But it seems like you're still getting accustomed to our language."

"Speak... up... Don't... waste... my... time..." The Pokemon said while clenching one of its fist as a sign of warning.

"Calm down. Since we can speak to each other, the whole thing will be much easier. You see, our organization put a lot of time, money and effort into creating you and we would like you to come back with us."

"That's not... going to... happen." it seemed like the Pokemon could probe the man's mind to get a better hang of the language but he couldn't read his mind since he would predict what was about to happen.

"Well, it's a shame. It really is. But if you don't want to come in peace... I will haunt you until you give up."

Reacting to those words, two three-fingered, purple hands appeared from within Peter's body and reached towards Mewtwo who, surprised by them, let go of the trainer and jumped back. Peter landed safely on the ground and when he got up, his face looked weirdly deformed. His eyes were more sinister with something similar to an eyeliner surrounding them and his teeth all changed into fangs. The purple hands joined with his own and his whole body started being enveloped in a miasmatic aura. Both Mewtwo and the blue bird looked shocked by that scene.

"You're not human?" the psychic Pokemon asked.

"Oh. I am. It's just... I have this demon inside of me." Peter answered while quietly laughing.

After saying that, he tried to take Mewtwo by surprise and got fairy close, but his opponent realized what was happening in time and used Disable to stop the oncoming attack, even if it didn't know what Peter wanted to do. That stunt angered it to the point where it decided that talking was no longer necessary. Just as it expected, humans couldn't be reasoned with. Its eyes glowed in the pink color as it instantly unleashed a wave of psychic energy which knocked out its enemy. After that, Peter's body returned to normal and it turned out that the thing that caused him to change appearance in the first place was a Haunter that hid itself in the criminal's body and after fainting, fell next to its trainer.

Mewtwo walked up to the Dodrio, which looked terrified of the psychic Pokemon, and used Psycho Cut to cover its hand with energy and release the bird from the icy trap. Using telepathy, it convinced it to take Peter and Haunter on its back and get out of the island. After Dodrio did as told, Mewtwo's angry expression turned to sadness. It turned towards the blue bird. Although at first, it felt unwelcome at Articuno's, since that was the Pokemon's name, island, as they fought every day, covering the sea in icebergs, they came to like and see each other as rivals. But regrettably, Mewtwo was the one who brought enemies to their home.

"Hide for now." he spoke in a way that the legendary bird could understand the best "They're after me, not you. I'll go somewhere else and hope that they'll follow and leave you alone."

As it began raising into air, Articuno fixed his saddened eyes on its friends back. Just when the bird thought their rivalry helped Mewtwo forget its sorrow concerning what it felt towards humans, everything got destroyed and the psychic Pokemon was once again absorbed in a mix of negative emotions as it took off towards parts unknown. The only consolation it got was that the Team Rocket, in fact, never returned to Seafoam Islands. But that just meant that its friend could be going through something horrible after their separation.

* * *

For the first time, I think I really don't have a lot to say about the chapter, other than it was completely changed. In the original plans it was a filler about Red using Oddish and Magikarp to fight Digletts since the special chapter didn't exist and that would be their first fights, but since that wasn't necessary, I focused on some leftovers from the special chapter and also added the whole thing with Peter. I actually started thinking about an explanation for the icebergs as soon as I mentioned them in the special chapter and I decided to have them be remains of a battle between Mewtwo and Articuno but only during writing this chapter, I decided to make them rivals instead of just enemies fighting over territory. The next chapter will have a little more stuff before going into Red's gym battle. The name of the chapter is a reference to the ACDC song Shoot to Thrill. Also, I regret that I didn't make some kind of Shaman King joke when Peter fused with Haunter.

 

Red. Team: Eevee, Charmander, Pikachu, Oddish, Magikarp.

Badges: 2

Green. Team: Ivysaur, Nidorina, Jigglypuff, Hitmonlee.

Badges: 3

Blue. Team: Bellsprout(Bell), Wartortle(Tori), Zubat(?), ?.

Badges: 3

Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.

Angie. Team: ?, ?.

Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, ?.


	16. Chapter 15: The True Man's World.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red has a talk with Michael before going to challenge Lt. Surge.

Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 15: The True Man's World.

"So this is your last day in the hospital?" Michael asked while rummaging through a bowl of candy placed on a shelf next to Red's bed.

"Yeah. I'm actually ready to leave so it's good that you managed to visit me in time. The only thing I'm waiting for are new clothes I had Green order for me since it's been getting colder." the boy answered while peeling a banana for himself, since he quickly got tired of the sweets after eating them in large quantities, especially considering that he didn't get a lot of movement in the time he spent at the hospital.

"So what are you planning to do next?" Michael said while chewing on a chocolate candy covered with coconut flakes.

"I already have a reservation with Lt. Surge for my Gym battle. He went as far as emptying his schedule just so he would be sure that he could take me on, no matter the time I was released."

"Lt. Surge is certainly a man amongst men. He's highly respected by the citizens of Vermilion City. He's kinda like my idol. Well... He and Chuck."

"Chuck? Who's that?"

"He's another manly man whom I aspire to be like. But he's probably not very well known in Kanto."

"You know, I've been wondering... You said something when we first met about wanting to win the Pokemon League, right?" Red looked at him with an unsure face, since there were some things about Michael's statement from that time that didn't make complete sense after he got to know him.

"Yes. And my chances rise every year!" Michael laughed out loud.

"Every year? So you already took part in the Pokemon League?"

"Not "the". I took part in multiple Pokemon Leagues. I switch between Kanto and Johto for each year and I've already tried to win each of them 4 times."

"So you lost 8 Pokemon Leagues?!" Red was so shocked he almost fell from the bed.

"It's not that surprising. Even if I try my best, I spend most of the year working on St. Anne while other people take that time to train. But I've slowly been getting better and even reached the top 16 in the latest Johto League. There's actually a difference between the 2 leagues where the finals in Kanto consist of 32 people and in Johto of 16 so I've actually managed to reach the finals in both regions."

"Wait... That means that this year you will take part in the Kanto League, right?"

"Yeah. Who knows? Maybe we'll even go against each other? But even if you luck out and don't have to fight me, don't get your hopes up. There's already been a miracle three years ago where a newbie trainer won the Kanto League on his first try."

Red pondered those words for a while. Although he trained with Eevee for the last couple years, his decision of becoming a Pokemon trainer and trying to get into the league were pretty much made on a whim. And yet there were people like Michael who tried to become the Pokemon Master for years and didn't achieve their dreams. All that thinking made him remember the conversation he had with Blue before his battle with Brock.

"Do you have a goal hidden behind winning a Pokemon League?" only after asking the question, he realized how rude it may have sounded and covered his mouth.

Thankfully, Michael laughed it off and gave an explanation "It's not really hidden. When I was young, I often visited my grandpa who also was a sailor for many years. The difference was that he had his own ship. By the time I was born, the ship was a wreck and my grandpa was too old to sail anymore but he would often tell me tales of his adventures. One of them told of a Pokemon, a giant, white beast swimming around the North Pole. Although my grandpa saw it, he didn't get any proof of it so many other sailors considered him crazy. Even my own father acted like it was just a made up story. But... The tears in my grandfather's eyes... I know that that Pokemon must exist and I want to prove it. I became a sailor with that goal in mind but while I have the expertise, I don't have enough money for my own ship, not to mention a crew. That's why I want to win the Pokemon League. The prize money won't be enough but it'll definitely help me. But the most important part is the speech the Champion gets to give. I'll use it to promote myself to any potential investors."

"Maaan... That's... I know I shouldn't but I feel like such an asshole when people talk about their dreams."

"So I take it you're a trainer for fun?"

"I'm... I think I hope that through doing this I will realize what I want... But I don't know..."

"Well, even being a trainer for just the sake of it is good. Seeing how far you can go while trying to become better at something is never a bad course. And even if someone becomes a champion and doesn't have any further dreams by then, that person still has a lot of money they can use to help them search for a new goal."

"I'm sorry. I don't want pressure you into taking pity on me. Ignoring your final dream and anything I'll eventually do, our goal for now is the same and that makes as rivals." Red got off the bed and reached forward for a handshake "If we meet in the League, I'll fight you with all I've got."

"The same goes for me." Michael said while shaking the boy's hand.

They stared at each other with burning passion in their eyes for what seemed like an eternity, as if their battle already has begun. Suddenly, they were taken out of it when they heard somebody knocking on the door to the room.

"That's probably the person with my new clothes." Red said while happily jumping over the bed to get to the door, but when he swung them open towards himself, his smile lessened as he realized that it wasn't what he expected.

In front of him was a tall, slim, pale woman clad in a black dress that reached her knees. She also wore a black hat and had minimalistic make-up on her face. Next to her was a boy, around 5 years old, who wore a suit and had neatly combed hair. The woman had a slight smile on her face while the child seemed like it was trying to avert Red's gaze by looking at its shoes.

"You are Mr. Red, are you not?" she asked while analyzing his face.

"Yes. I am. And I guess you were passengers on St. Anne during that cruise. And there's no need for a "Mr.". Just "Red" is fine."

"Alright then. You guessed correctly. Me and my son came here to give you our thanks." she said before bowing way too low.

Red felt embarrassment whenever somebody did that since during that cruise, in all his fighting, he cared more about winning than about the safety of the passengers. That made him feel like he wasn't worthy of all the recognition he received. Despite that, he felt like something was off when the boy didn't join his mother in bowing but when the woman also realized that, she took his head in her hand and made him lower it by applying a small amount of force. When they were done and Red could see her face again, she looked somehow sadder than before.

"I'm terribly sorry that we didn't bring you any gifts." she said.

"Oh no. You're gratitude is more than enough." the teenager held up his hands in a way that signified that he wanted her to be calm.

The woman took her child's hand and started turning around "We... We will be going then."

After they left, Red closed the door and returned to Michael.

"Where were then?"

"Oh. I should also probably get going. The ship is still being repaired but I want to see how it's doing." the sailor explained.

"Alright then. But this means we probably won't see each other until the Pokemon League."

"You don't know that. Fate works in mysterious ways."

As he was leaving the room, the man gave his friend a last big smile. He slowly began making his way towards the elevator when he heard a weird, quiet sound in the mostly empty corridor. He saw the woman, sitting on a bench, next to her son whose face was covered with tears. She was too absorbed with trying to calm the boy down to notice Michael passing them, but the sailor couldn't help overhearing a part of their conversation.

"You can't be angry at him. He saved mommy and you."

"But... but daddy... his head... you said... he's gone..."

As he reached the elevator, Michael's mind immediately pieced what was going on by connecting what he heard with how the woman and her son looked and acted like. He didn't want to turn around since they could be able to see him if he passed them again, so all he could hope for was that they would leave before Red would step out of his room. Even if he considered him to be on the same level as him when it came to Pokemon, the man felt like there were some things he wouldn't be able to deal with as well as he would, and since in that moment he felt like the most useless piece of trash, he knew that Red would feel a thousand times worse.

.   .   .

"Bounce!" Red shouted as he held onto Magikarp while both of them were falling towards the ground at high speed.

The Pokemon used its move which caused them to be reflected of the street, scaring a couple car drivers in the process, and allowed them to get back on one of the roofs. Red let go of Magikarp when they were still in the air so both of them could land safely by themselves. The teenager felt a shock run from his feet up to his neck when he hit the concrete but it was only momentary. The reason for him travelling in such a dangerous way was to avoid all the fans he apparently gained after saving St. Anne. A group of them stopped him when he was on his way to the Gym for no other reason than that they wanted to have a photo with someone who has been featured on TV in some capacity.

Suspecting that he would have to deal with a lot more of that, he took to the roofs but he didn't prepare by mapping out his route which was the reason for him almost becoming a pancake when he tried to jump a gap which proved too wide. He stopped for a while to make sure that his new clothes were okay with his antics. He switched his denim pants for black, insulated ones which were significantly less loose. He also started wearing a hoodie with the design based on his vest. He also bought gloves and a scarf but left them in his bag for the time being, since it wasn't cold enough that he would need them.

After traversing a couple more roofs, Red finally reached the edge of the town and got down to the ground. It seemed like the road leading to the Gym didn't have any other purpose so there weren't that many people on it. On his way, the teenager noticed another trainer who was complaining about the fact that Lt. Surge told him that he was too busy and he should come back the next day. Knowing that it was partly his fault, Red felt a little guilty.

"I've arrived!" Red announced loudly while pushing open the doors, a thing he couldn't do previously since the other Gyms he visited had automatic doors.

Unfortunately, his words weren't heard by anybody since the lobby was just an empty room. Curiously, the walls were covered in metal, even when he went through the corridor and reached the main room. The only things not made of it were the arena and the platforms for the trainers. Lt. Surge was sitting cross-legged, with his eyes closed, on the opposite end of the room. Behind him was a corridor similar to the one the boy walked through but on both sides of it were concrete pedestal with small wooden boxes placed on top of them. The leader immediately noticed Red's arrival and opened his eyes.

"Welcome to the true man's world." he said before smiling from ear to ear.

After standing up, it seemed like he was ready to begin the battle without need for any further explanations since he grabbed one of the pokeballs from his belt. Red got on his platform but before they would fight, he had a couple questions.

"It's good to see you again. So, what are the rules?"

"We each use 3 Pokemon. No switching allowed. If you beat all of my Pokemon, the Thunder badge will be yours."

"Alright. And what's with those boxes behind you?"

"One of them contains the badges. I have to give them out so rarely that I was worried about losing them so I placed them here." he said while pointing to the box on the left, after which he switched his finger to the right one "The other has a secret, additional prize for those who want it. But you'll never know what it is if you don't defeat me. But enough of this chit-chatting. My first Pokemon is Magneton!"

The levitating hunk of metal appeared from inside its pokeball and acted like if it was dizzy, with all of its eyes moving rapidly in different directions.

"Three eyes..." Red said while considering who he was going to choose "Okay. I've got it. Go, Charmander!"

"Haha! You think you'll win just because you chose a fire type against a steel type?! You're making a grave mistake!"

"That's not the reason why I chose him! Charmander, use Smokescreen!"

The lizard opened its mouth and covered the arena with black clouds, obscuring his opponent's vision.

"Now, attack him with Flamethrower!"

Charmander shot out a stream of fire which pierced the smoke and, although they couldn't see it yet, caused the leader to step to the side since it almost hit him. He was thankful that it didn't reach any of the boxes and dispersed mid-air. The same happened to the cloud, but when it was gone, Magneton was nowhere to be seen. Charmander started looking around in panic but before he could find his foe, he was hit by a Flash Cannon which sent him flying into a wall. When Red looked in the direction from where the attack came from, he saw that Magneton was using two of its magnets to attract itself to the opposite wall, although he was pretty high on it.

"So that's what it did." Red immediately went back to his strategy and started rethinking it.

Meanwhile, Charmander got up and was ready for further battle.

"This is the first time that Smokescreen worked against us. But even taking that aside... This room... Charmander, use Flamethrower again!"

The lizard shot out its attack in Magneton's direction but the electric Pokemon immediately reacted by letting go of the wall and using another set of magnets to attract itself to the floor below it.

"Don't let up!" Red commanded.

Charmander continued on spewing fire but Magneton constantly managed to escape by changing the magnets it was using and attracting itself to different surfaces in the metal room. The places hit by Flamethrower seemed mostly resistant to fire since they only turned red for a short while before returning to their normal color.

"Okay! You can stop for now!"

"Hmm? Did he come up with some other plan?" the leader muttered while still looking rather confident.

"Use Flame Charge!"

Charmander covered its body in fire. Ever since Red was well enough to leave his hospital room, he would train with the lizard so that he could do it almost instantly. After that, the Pokemon ran at its opponent who was hanging pretty low on the opposite wall. Magneton pulled himself up and across the wall but Charmander's speed, augmented by the move, allowed him to run vertically.

Seeing that, Lt. Surge calmly but surely ordered "Sonic Boom!"

The levitating Pokemon shot out condensed sound waves in the form of a boomerang which passed Charmander and returned to hit in the back of the head, causing it to drop to the floor.

"Charmander, don't stop! Continue using Flame Charge!"

The fire Pokemon took a couple step backwards, so it could have a run up, before it used the attack again, making Magneton escape to the opposite wall. With its speed increased even further, Charmander was hot on its opponent's trail.

"Go up! And use more Sonic Booms!" Lt. Surge ordered.

Magneton moved to the ceiling and shot out three of the boomerang-like attacks. Charmander avoided the first two but the last knocked him of the wall. When he got up, he looked at his trainer whose face was clearly telling him that he was to continue with this tactic. He set himself on fire once again and while reaching insanely high speeds, he managed to traverse the whole height of the wall and, without even realizing it, tried to run on the ceiling while being upside down, until the moment when a surprising new order arrived.

"Flamethrower!"

As much as it shocked Charmander, he executed it. Magneton was even more surprised and without having time to react, it decided to drop straight down. Looking at that, the leader quickly realized what was going on.

"Magnet Bomb! Use several!"

Magneton started shooting multiple metal balls as it was falling towards the arena, but Charmander's flaming body melted them before they could be caused to explode. When he jumped down from the ceiling, it quickly reached the opponent and smashed it into the floor with a headbutt.

"Scratch!" ordered Red.

Charmander got a good grip with one of its hands while trying to use the other to damage the foe, but to everyone's surprise, his claws turned to metal, causing them to do significantly less damage than they would normally have against a steel opponent.

Lt. Surge took that moment of shock as his chance "Zap Cannon!"

Magneton produced a powerful ball of electricity between two magnets, but Charmander, afraid of being hit, accidentally pushed aside of his foe's limbs, causing the attack to go out of control and fly into a wall.

"If Scratch doesn't work... let's overwhelm it with Flamethrower!" Red shouted.

Charmander did exactly that. Although Magneton managed to begin levitating, it still couldn't shake of the lizard while being constantly under pain from its attacks. Finally, it dropped back to the floor and Charmander stood atop it while roaring triumphally. That is, until the leader called Magneton back into its pokeball.

"I knew you were an amazing trainer already but you still manage to surpass my expectations. And your Charmander..." Surge said while feeling shivers of excitement run through his body while looking at the hot-blooded faces of his opponents "...Well, you better watch out. The next one is even tougher! Go, Electrode!"

* * *

There's not much to be said about the battle. I hope it came out cool so far. All these battles are kinda about Red finding ways to defeat the tactics which the leader's probably use for all of their battles so I'm a little afraid that it makes it seem like the leaders can't adapt or have more than one plan. But then again, if whenever Red came up with a counterattack, the opponent came up with one of their own, it would be like an infinite game of them trying to outdo each other. That's why the leaders stick to what they know and try to win with it. Surge's phrase which is also used for the title comes from character Ringo Roadagain from Steel Ball Run. And the guy isn't like a sexist or anything. I just wanted him to be like the typical burly characters from 80's manga and anime.

Then there's the topic of death. Seeing how messed up Red got during the Special Chapter, it wouldn't seem out of ordinary that somebody died after falling over during all the shaking and cracked their head. There were probably more people, they just were too busy with grieving. There was also 2 other important things about that scene. They concerned the woman and Michael. If you noticed, then congratulations. If not, don't worry. It was pretty vague.

Totally unrelated, but I wanted to say that I love the new opening for Sun and Moon anime.

Red. Team: Eevee, Charmander, Pikachu, Oddish, Magikarp.

Badges: 2

Green. Team: Ivysaur, Nidorina, Jigglypuff, Hitmonlee.

Badges: 3

Blue. Team: Bellsprout(Bell), Wartortle(Tori), Zubat(?), ?.

Badges: 3

Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.

Angie. Team: ?, ?.

Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, ?.


	17. Chapter 16: A Certain Bioelectric Railgun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red continuues his fight with Lt. Surge.

Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 16: A Certain Bioelectric Railgun.

"Go, Electrode!" when Lt. Surge threw the pokeball with his second Pokemon, what appeared from inside looked eerily similar to the item it was stored in.

Having not met it previously, Red checked in the Pokedex whether this one was also a steel type, since it kind of looked like it would be, but he learned that it was purely electric. This would make the battle a little harder than the previous one since none of the fighters would have a natural advantage. Since the leader seemed to have no problem with the teenager checking up information, the boy also took the chance to learn what happened to Charmander's Scratch and learned that it must have been replaced by Metal Claw. Although it was an overall stronger version of the previous move, it could be less useful in certain situations. But there was nothing the trainer could do about that.

"Are you done?" Lt. Surge seemed to be getting a little impatient.

Even Charmander stood there, looking at his trainer, waiting for the battle to continue. It seemed like his battle spirit calmed down a little.

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry. You can have the first move." the trainer replied while hiding the Pokedex in his pocket.

"Don't mind if I take you up on that. Electrode, use Sonic Boom!"

"Again?! Will you stop it with that?!"

Charmander didn't need an order to be able to easily dodge the Sonic Boom but even though it took only a fraction of a second, when he glanced towards the opponent, he saw that it was already on the move towards it.

"Another two! Corner him!"

Electrode shot out a pair of boomerangs which circled Charmander before flying to hit him from left and right. He made a quick decision to avoid them by jumping forward, which turned out to be a mistake on his part.

"Rollout!"

Electrode was already close enough that when it began spinning its whole body, Charmander didn't have a chance to do anything other than try to put his arms up to try and block the attack. It proved virtually useless. He was hit with great force and sent past its trainer and into the corridor behind. The lizard got up, only to realize that Electrode didn't stop its attack and was still rolling towards him. Dodging it would be even harder since the corridor was tight enough that the ball Pokemon would block any path of escape.

Even though Red's vision was obscured by the leader's Pokemon he gave the only order he thought could be useful in that situation "Flamethrower!"

Electrode was pushed back out to the main room but immediately began rolling back in Charmander's direction.

"Go up!" ordered Red.

The lizard shot out his flames downwards which allowed him to propel himself into air and out of Electrode's path. His foe flew into the lobby and the fire Pokemon looked back while flying out of the corridor. Red realized the reason for why the lobby was empty and the doors weren't automatic when he saw glimpses of the electric Pokemon bouncing of the walls multiple times before it finally ricocheted itself towards the main room, hitting the falling Charmander on its way. When the lizard was knocked backwards and the ball Pokemon was turning around to attack again, Red gave another command "Flame Charge!"

Charmander set himself on fire but didn't have time to start his run since Electrode was already dangerously close.

"Dodge!" shouted the leader, and his Pokemon acted accordingly.

Red thought to himself that it would be a good idea to have Charmander keep himself in that state since that meant that the opponent wouldn't be able to hit him with a Rollout without hurting itself in the process, while both of them were getting used to dealing with Sonic Booms.

The leader must have also reached a similar conclusion since he decided to switch his tactic "Screech!"

Electrode stopped in place and began vibrating its body slightly, producing a sound which, while not physically damaging, caused Charmander to lose focus as he tried to keep it from going into his ears since even a second of it caused an unpleasant feeling to run through his body. His foe took that chance immediately and used another Rollout to send the lizard into a wall. Charmander managed to regain his composure and used Flame Charge to run up, in a similar way to when he fought Magneton.

Unfortunately, while Red and his Pokemon were both expecting another Sonic Boom or a bunch of them, Lt. Surge had a different plan "It's time to kick it up a Spark!"

Red didn't have time to tell whether that phrase made sense as he was too busy looking as Charmander was struck down by a jolt of electricity which passed through the metal walls, at an amazing speed, when Electrode touched one of them. As it fell towards the floor, it had no way to get out of harms way when another duo of Sonic Booms hit him from two sides.

Meanwhile, Electrode got in place below his opponent and began using Rollout without moving around as if it was a car that was being revved up before a race. When Charmander fell down, the spinning body of the electric Pokemon immediately sent him flying towards Red who took out the lizard's pokeball at the last second and called it back inside. The ball stopped and looked at the boy with a big grin on its face. It did a couple rolls from side to side as if it was trying to mock him.

The teenager looked a little disappointed but it wasn't because his Pokemon lost, but because of his decisions which caused that loss to happen "You did a great job, buddy."

He attached the pokeball to his belt and immediately reached for another one.

"Are you sure?" the leader looked slightly surprised that Red made up his mind so quickly.

"Yes. Ever since I met you on St. Anne and saw that you were an electric type trainer, I started coming up with what would be a good team to use in this battle. I didn't reach a clear decision but I knew this guy would be useful. Don't think that I'm playing around. I'm going all out."

"I see. Then show me the one you put so much faith in!"

"Go, Oddish!" Red yelled as he threw the ball.

The grass Pokemon appeared from the beam of light and, not surprising his trainer, was asleep as his body materialized on the arena. Meanwhile, the leader and his partner looked a little confused, but the former soldier decided to stay careful, in case if that was part of some secret plan prepared by his opponent.

"Oddiiiiish! It's time to wake up!" the teenager shouted.

The Pokemon was awake since he slowly looked to each side before he closed his eyes. He seemed to ignore his trainer which made Lt. Surge a little sad for the boy, since he imagined how embarrassing it would be if his Pokemon disobeyed him in such a way.

Red seemed like he was ready to give up in trying to get the Pokemon to move, when suddenly he arched himself back before giving a deafening shout "Didn't you hear me?! Rise and shine!"

Lt. Surge made the mistake of covering his eyes and closing his eyes for slightly longer than a blink. When they were open again, Oddish was not only completely woken up, but also spinning through the air upside down as it chanted his name. The leader let go of his ears and looked at the scene in confusion.

Suddenly, even though there were no windows, a ray of sunlight crossed the man's face. He blocked it with his hand and, during that time, Oddish managed to land back on the floor. The leader slowly came to understand that this was indeed a tactic which Red had planned. Oddish being asleep lured him and Electrode into a sense of false security while the teenager's command was formed in such a way that his Pokemon would understand to use Sunny Day without actually being told to use that move.

"I can't let him control the pace any longer..." he whispered to himself "...Electrode, use Rollout!"

The electric Pokemon smiled as it started spinning before it shot out like a flicked marble. Although it was moving fast, it came to a sudden stop since during one of the rotations, its target seemed to disappear before its eyes. Electrode turned around and saw Oddish happily jumping far behind it, on Lt. Surge's side of the room. Although it couldn't tell how it happened, it planned on continuing its attack and began rolling again, this time trying to up its speed.

As it was about to reach him, the grass Pokemon seemed to disappear again. But while Electrode couldn't rely on its eyesight to find the opponent, it still had its other senses, and at that moment its smell and hearing told it Oddish's location. It had to make a sharp turn since the opponent was still fairly close but it was sure that this time he wouldn't be able to run away.

"No! Sto...!" the leader couldn't finish since his Pokemon already crashed into him with immense force.

The man tried to stop it by planting himself firmly but when he was pushed onto the metal, it was easier for him to slip up. He fell down and the Electrode's acceleration allowed the Pokemon to fly above its trainer and bounce of the wall right above the box with the badges. When it landed, it realized its mistake and approached the leader with a worried expression. The man was slightly bruised on his elbows but other than that and the front of his torso hurting a little, he seemed to be fine, especially since he jumped right back on his feet. He gave Red a look that seemed both angry and satisfied at the same time. Oddish stood in the middle of the arena, looking like it was trying to provoke their opponents with its happy, nonchalant attitude.

"You had Oddish spray me with something which would attract Electrode's attention." the leader said while grabbing his shirt to sniff it "That's certainly a new one. But you should have used that moment to attack. I'm not somebody who falls twice for the same trick."

"Well, that was only our first tactic. I still have a couple other ones up my sleeve. Like for example now."

"What are you...?"

"I mean that while you're focused on what I'm talking about, Oddish is performing the move I told him to use while you were busy with being knocked down." Red explained with a cocky smirk.

Lt. Surge looked at the grass Pokemon who seemed to be just standing in place with a slight smile on his face. As he focused his gaze, he noticed a faint greenish glow surrounding the weeds body.

"No!" he yelled when he realized what was going on and turned his attention to his own Pokemon "Electrode! Roll backwards!"

The ball Pokemon didn't understand what was going but listened and when it did, it saw that the place in which it sat had two small vines sticking from beneath. As soon as their opponents saw through their plan, Oddish quickly retracted the ropes through the ground and back into his body. He could use them in the first place because he sent them into the earthy floor along his back and legs. That allowed it to suck out Electrode's energy by means of Mega Drain, without drawing attention to himself. Only after separating itself from the vines' touch, Electrode realized how much of its powers were drained. It panted a little but gave its trainer a look that meant it was ready to still go on.

"Alright! Let's go! Electrode, Spark and then Rollout!" the leader ordered, hoping that the first attack would keep the opponent too occupied to get a chance to dodge the second.

Although the artificial sun created by Sunny Day was useful in increasing Oddish's speed, thanks to his ability, Chlorophyll, Red decided that it would work to their advantage to not avoid the next attack "Stand your ground! Literally!"

Oddish managed to withstand the Spark without much trouble. In a short while, Electrode approached it with great speed and it seemed like the grass Pokemon would be knocked backwards. While he still moved in that direction, he did so slowly, while enduring the spinning body of its foe pushing him. It all happened faster than it seemed and before Lt. Surge could give an order, Electrode stopped by itself to see why its attack wasn't working, only to realize that Oddish stopped himself from being knocked away by planting his vines in the ground.

At the moment the electric Pokemon stopped moving, the tendrils were already stretched far enough that when Oddish jumped, he served like a catapult for Electrode who was sent flying through the room at a great speed. It couldn't maneuver itself and crashed into the wall with such force that it made a big indentation. Instead of worrying about whether this bout was over, Red focused on the walls and started coming up with another tactic.

"Electrode, return!" the leader shouted after seeing that his Pokemon couldn't go on anymore.

"You did great, Oddish." Red praised his Pokemon who jumped over to the boy to give him a high five with one of his leaves.

"Don't get too comfortable. I've been giving it my best from the beginning but I still used Pokemon in order of power. That means that this one is stronger than the previous two." the leader said while confidently presenting a pokeball.

Red looked at him with a blank face, caused by his confusion about what the man was trying to prove "I mean... it's just Raichu, isn't it?"

"What?"

"I saw you using it on St. Anne. I assumed it was your strongest Pokemon since it was the one you decided to use against the giant Tentacruel. Was... Was that meant to be a surprise?"

"I... You... You're kinda taking the fun out of this."

"No, no. I'm excited. I want to fight your Raichu."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, yeah. Ever since I saw it, I was like "Woah, I better watch out for that Raichu". Honest." although Red purposefully exaggerated his words, there was some truth behind them, since he made special preparations in order to fight the electric mouse.

"Okay. Then here it goes! Raichu!" Lt. Surge finally released the Pokemon from its ball.

As it appeared mid-air, it shot out small jolts of electricity from its cheek before landing with one of its legs pointed towards the opponents, and a face that showed it was ready to begin the fight.

"Alright, Oddish..." Red began as he kneeled so that his Pokemon could hear his quietened voice "...I have an idea on what to do. I don't know if it'll work out, but the important part is that you're not the one needed for that plan. If we can do this, I'm fine if you are the one to beat Raichu but the most important part is that."

Red pointed towards the artificial sun hanging close to the ceiling.

"If this disappears and you feel like you're close to fainting, you have to put up a new one. Other than that, let's just do our best. Okay?"

The Pokemon nodded while trying to put on a serious face, yet still looking as cute as always. He stepped forward and his trainer stood up and looked the leader in the eyes.

"Are you done?" the man asked.

"Yeah. Pretty much."

"Then you're done."

"Wha-?"

"Volt Tackle!"

Even though Red understood what was happening, Raichu moved too fast for the boy to utter any command of his own. Even though electric moves weren't especially effective against Oddish, since the grass Pokemon couldn't prepare himself, he was hit pretty hard and flew backwards a couple meters, hitting the wall next to the corridor.

The young trainer didn't have time to think but he predicted that the opponent wouldn't let up attacking, so he quickly ordered a countermeasure "Mega Drain!"

He was proved accurate when Raichu swiftly approached Oddish with another Volt Tackle, until the moment when it saw the vines shot out in its direction and slowed down a little out of hesitation.

"Fall back!" shouted Lt. Surge.

The mouse did as ordered by jumping a performing a couple of backwards flips, until the moment it thought it was out of reach. In truth, Oddish could probably reach it even at that distance, but the grass Pokemon felt it was more important to get itself back on feet since staying static against such an opponent seemed unwise.

"If it's that fast, we'll just have to keep it on its toes. Megadrain!"

Oddish advanced past his trainer and sprouted two new vines which approached Raichu from sides.

"Agility!" ordered the leader.

His Pokemon took a second to focus. During that time, its body seemed to be surrounded by a wall of wind. When it disappeared, so did the Pokemon. Oddish stopped his vines in confusion and started looking around in panic, when suddenly, Raichu appeared right in front of him, ready to strike. To Surge's surprise, his Pokemon immediately backed out and watched how Oddish retracted the vines.

"What's going on? Why didn't you hit him?" the leader wondered.

Raichu pointed towards a cloud of dust emitting from Oddish's leaves, which after missing its target, fell towards the floor and disappeared.

"A powder of some sort. Stun Spore... Or maybe Sleep Powder..."

Oddish glanced towards his trainer, while the opponents were busy with their own things, and noticed that the boy was holding up one of his hands and slapping the back of it lightly.

"Don't worry, Raichu. I've got an idea." the leader reassured his Pokemon who nodded in response "Use Thunder!"

The electric Pokemon started gathering energy in its cheeks. After there was enough of it, the mouse directed a powerful blasts upwards. It didn't reach the ceiling, instead changing direction and moving towards Oddish at great speeds.

"Mega Drain!" yelled Red.

Lt. Surge understood that as the boy hoping that the vines would reach Raichu before the electricity would hit Oddish, so he gave another order of his own "Volt Tackle!"

Raichu didn't look if the vines were actually coming towards him and started running while covering himself in electricity. It knew not to approach the opponent head-on, and instead tried to get behind it from the right side. The leader looked a little confused when he realized that Oddish didn't seem to listen to Red's order.

Thunder was about to hit when Red gave a new command "Jump back!"

Oddish managed to avoid it, but Raichu was already behind him and approaching at such speed that it would be impossible to dodge it without falling into the attack in the front. But what neither Raichu nor its trainer expected was that Red was two steps ahead and Oddish's vines were actually used to cover its back, making Raichu change direction at the last moment to avoid getting its energy drained. The turn was so harsh that the mouse tripped, giving Oddish a chance to extend its vines and grab the foe's body. Thunder made a huge impact and kicked up a cloud of dust which shielded the Pokemon from their partners' view. When it finally settled down, they could see Raichu struggling against the vines and trying to get free by biting into them.

"Raichu, stop playing around! Grab hold of them and use Slam!"

The mouse listened and although with a little trouble, it got to a standing position in which it used all its strength to swing the vines above itself, sending Oddish into a wall. After hitting it, the grass Pokemon's grip loosened and Raichu could escape and move to a safe distance to catch some breath. Lt. Surge looked like he was about to give another order, but his attention, as well as everybody else, was caught by the fact that the room seemed to be getting darker. The artificial sun created by Oddish started disappearing and soon the only light left was that created by the couple lamps hanging from the ceiling. Red gave his Pokemon, who was getting up, a hesitant look but it seemed like it was ready to still go on. What it didn't take into account was that with the sun gone, its speed was also lessened as proved right away by Raichu.

"Volt Tackle!"

The mouse crashed into the grass Pokemon, knocking him upwards. He tried to regain balance while mid-air, but Lt. Surge didn't want to give him any rest.

"Jump off the wall and Slam!"

Raichu did as ordered and quickly got itself above Oddish where it spun around and, this time, used its tail to send him towards the floor. It landed right next to him and picked up the helpless foe by its leaves to throw it towards his trainer.

"Finish him with a Thunder!" the leader yelled while bringing his arm up in a swinging motion.

"Oddish, this is it!" shouted Red.

The Pokemon was hurting too bad to get up but thankfully, it wasn't needed for him to use Sunny Day. Energy from its body flew through the air and started forming the shining sphere. At that moment, Raichu already had enough electricity gathered to use its move. Red was prepared to return his partner to his pokeball, but something caught his attention. It seemed like Oddish was prepared to do as much damage to his opponent, no matter how much he himself would receive. Raichu also noticed it, although a little too late.

It jumped back since it turned out that even though Oddish was busy with creating the sun and was about to be struck down by Thunder, he was using the same underground vine trick he did on Electrode. If he could make the fight even a little easier for the next Pokemon, he considered it worth a try. The sun was formed. The thunder struck. After a couple seconds, an unconscious Oddish could be seen through the cloud of dust.

Red returned the grass Pokemon to its pokeball and gave him his deep thanks before putting it away and calmly reaching for the next one. Lt. Surge looked a little worried. He would feel better if the teenager had a smug expression but the slight smile seemed so calm that the leader was actually getting annoyed. He would feel like a fool if the battle they just had was a set-up for another one of Red's plans.

"So, what is your last Pokemon?"

"Here he comes. Go, Pikachu!"

The electric mouse appeared from his pokeball without doing anything special. If anything, he looked a little bored by the fact that he was called out for a battle. He scratched himself behind an ear while staring down Raichu, who was getting slightly irritated at its opponent's attitude.

"Hey, Pikachu. Is everything okay?"

The mouse looked at its trainer and lifted his arms up, showing that it had enough of dealing with opponents who weren't a challenge to him, especially since Red focused on training him during his stay at the hospital.

"This one isn't the same. Besides, if you win, you'll get double the food for dinner."

Pikachu seemed to be in deep though over what the boy said and, after some time, showed him his hand with three fingers lifted up.

"Okay, okay. Just don't slip up on your confidence, ya jerk."

Hearing that the trainer agreed, Pikachu turned towards the opponent with an evil looking smile.

"Raichu, we have to be fast so that they can't do whatever they're planning, got it?" said the leader.

His Pokemon nodded and assumed a four-limbed, fighting stance.

"Volt Tackle!"

"Iron Tail!"

In another instance of its speed proving too great, Raichu couldn't stop himself in time, not to crash head first into Pikachu's tail which has turned to metal. The smaller Pokemon swatted his opponent to the side, but it spun one of its hands and to regain balance and place itself safely on the ground.

But Red didn't seem to plan on giving it a break "Quick Attack!"

"Spin around and grab him!"

Raichu did as ordered. It got Pikachu into a hold which was hard to escape from, but at that kind of range there was only one thing he could do.

"Slam it into the wall!"

Red understood that Pikachu couldn't avoid hitting the wall, but he didn't plan on having it take any damage "Rebound with Iron Tail!"

Pikachu turned around while flying through the air and hit the wall with his tail, leaving an indentation that was around half the length of its tail. After that, he gracefully landed on the floor.

"Yes... Something like this..." Red whispered to himself "Alright! Another Quick Attack!"

Red gave a command after a command. Each of them forced Lt. Surge and Raichu to keep a defensive stance and use Slam to avoid taking damage. The leader started looking around in order to decipher just what it was the challenger hoped to do, but the only thing he noticed was that Pikachu's Iron Tail kept damaging the metal walls, floor and ceiling whenever he was thrown into them.

"I don't know what's going on but I won't let him do what he wants. Raichu, use Agility!" the leader ordered, risking that his Pokemon would be hit by the next Quick Attack.

Raichu managed to increase its speed and perform a side step, which allowed it to grab Pikachu when he approached it.

"Throw him up, but not too hard!" commanded Lt. Surge and his Pokemon did so "Now, he has no surface to bounce off! Use Thunder!"

Raichu gathered the necessary energy and shot out a powerful attack but, to his trainer's shock, it seemed to miraculously avoid the opponent.

"That's not possible! Even if it's an electric type, it should still receive some damage!" he shouted while clenching his fists.

"You'd think so, right?" Red looked rather smug when saying that "I told you before that I made preparations for this fight. The sun created by Oddish is still here and that means that Thunder has about 50% chance of missing its target. Thanks to that, we effectively sealed your Raichu's strongest move."

"We still have other things we can use! Raichu, Volt Tackle!"

"Pikachu, Quick Attack!"

Even though Raichu's speed was higher, it wasn't important if both Pokemon's goal was to crash into each other. The impact caused them both to be thrown in opposite directions.

"There's still one thing I have to check... Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"

The Pokemon shot out the attack but even though it reached its target, Raichu was completely unaffected by it and looked at its foe with confidence.

"Hahaha! You thought yourself so smart but as it turns out I'm also not entirely focused on brawn! I trained hard so that Raichu could attain a special ability called Lightning Rod! It makes it so that it attracts all electric attacks and negates them completely! It seems like your strongest move is also useless!"

"Alright. Our preparations are done." the boy looked rather content with himself.

"Wha-?"

"Pikachu, approach that indentation over there!" Red said while pointing to one of the damaged parts, particularly one which was rather low on a wall.

The Pokemon ran over to it without hesitation.

"Now, change your tail to iron."

Pikachu did as ordered. Everything was happening fairly quick and Lt. Surge still couldn't comprehend if the boy really had a plan and how these holes factored into it, but he didn't want to risk losing because of his curiosity.

"Oh no, you don't! Raichu, Volt Tackle!"

"Use Thunderbolt on your tail!" Red shouted, sweating a little from his forehead, since he started considering the risk of this tactic.

Pikachu himself didn't know what his trainer planned for so he was shocked when suddenly he was shot through the room with his tail leading him forward. He closed his eyes when he saw how close he was getting to another wall but when he didn't feel his body hitting it, he opened them back again to see that his tail slid along another indentation and sent him further, increasing his speed at the same time. His body was being flung around at such velocity that he had a little trouble keeping up. Meanwhile, the trainers and Raichu observed the situation. Red backed off to the corridor so that he wouldn't accidentally be hit by his own Pokemon who couldn't exactly control his path. Lt. Surge was almost grazed by Pikachu at one time and also took a couple steps back to the other corridor.

"This was your plan?!" he couldn't believe.

"Yeah! Pretty much!" Red had to yell since Pikachu sliding along the indentations with his electricity made a rather loud noise.

"And what the hell is this?!"

"It's...!" Red couldn't be heard anymore because of the increase in volume of the sounds.

Raichu looked at his trainer who looked at loss on what to do and decided to try moving around so that he could intercept Pikachu and stopped whatever game it was playing at. Although Lt. Surge's words couldn't get through, he tried to convey with his hands that he wanted Raichu to use its reflexes to grab Pikachu and use Slam on it.

Meanwhile, Red took a deep breath before shouting at the top of his lungs "Stop the Thunderbooolt!"

Pikachu heard him and stopped producing electricity while still retaining the Iron Tail. Red didn't wait to see if the Pokemon actually listened since at that speed it would be hard to tell what was going on.

Instead, the boy immediately followed with "Thunderbolt agaaain!"

The Pokemon used Thunderbolt while flying through the air, still propelled by the previous one, away from any of the indentations. This made is so instead of being shot through another hole, Pikachu's tail was attracted by Raichu's ability. Although the leader's Pokemon could see the incoming attack, he was too slow and was instantly hit in the belly while trying to grab the tail.

Even if Thunderbolt was useless, the power of the accelerated Iron Tail was so great that it pushed Raichu along the floor, past his trainer and the whole length of the corridor and through the doors at the end of it. Even that wasn't enough to stop Pikachu who had to try to rotate himself and slam the tail into the ground of the arena so that he wouldn't crush into the wall on the leader's side. His flight stopped only after he crashed into one of the boxes next to the corridor but the leader was too worried about his own Pokemon to notice that. He ran to the back room with a worried face.

"That was something..." Red said while massaging his sore throat and wiping the sweat off his forehead "Hey Pikachu, how are you... Pikachu?"

The leader returned after some time, looking at the ball to which he returned his Pokemon, visibly disappointed by his loss. He looked up after putting it away and noticed that the challenger wasn't at the opposite end of the arena. He looked around and quickly found the boy crouched next to the pedestal with the broken box.

"Damn it. It broke? I wanted this to be a surprise... Well... I never had a fight that would go so much out of control. I'll have to ask Rockskey to arrange a crew to fix the..." the leader stopped since he noticed the boy wasn't listening "Hello? Is something wrong?"

"Mr. Surge..."

"That's "Lt. Surge" for y..."

"Can you explain what's this?!" Red yelled while turning around and holding up, in his hands, a Raichu.

"Oh. So that's what happened! Your Pikachu crashed into the box with Thunder Stones and evolved into a Raichu. Normally, I offer a Thunder Stone along the Thunder badge as a prize for beating me. But there's nothing to worry about. You won so I would give the stone to you anyway."

"But I didn't want it!" Red exploded.

"Wha-? You didn't?! Are you crazy?!"

"I mean..." Red looked at the Pokemon "...I thought about evolving Pikachu sometime in the future but I still wanted to train him as a Pikachu. Now he won't be able to learn moves like Slam, Agility or Volt Tackle."

"Oh... I... But... You still managed to beat us, even though we had these moves at our disposal. That goes to show that it doesn't matter how strong your moves are, as long as you know how to use them effectively."

"I guess..." Red still looked a little sad but Raichu tried to cheer him up with a smile of his own and the boy slowly got over the whole thing "...Thanks for all your work... Raichu. Look forward to that triple portion of food."

After he returned the Pokemon to its ball, the boy stood up. The leader looked at him with a satisfied expression and realized that he was forgetting his duties. He turned around and went over to the other box and opened it with a key he took out from his pocket. After that, he handed the boy his other reward, the Thunder badge.

"Good job, soldier." the man said while saluting the boy.

"I'm... I'm not a soldier. Did you hit your head?"

"No... I... Ugh... Doesn't matter. I'll have to fix this place up or the challengers will start piling up and I'll get myself into trouble with the league officials."

After hiding the badge, Red looked up at the leader since his words reminded him of an important matter "Could I ask you something?"

"It depends. If it's about my time in the army, you have to understand that there's a lot of classified information and..."

"No, no. It's about something more recent." Red hesitated, since his thoughts wandered to the things he went through during his battle with Darkness Gang, but he slapped himself on both cheeks to regain his confidence "I wanted to ask you about Team Rocket."

"Team Rocket? Why would you ask "me" about "them"?" Lt. Surge put emphasis on these words since he wanted to test the waters after the boy's request caught him off guard.

"I don't know if he actually did it but Brock said that he was gonna contact the other Gym leaders about what he and I learned about Team Rocket." the teenager explained.

"Wait a minute. How the hell are you involved in this thing? Do you just stick your nose into every kind of trouble you can find?"

"It's more like me stumbling into trouble." Red sighed with a smile, but then his expression changed to a more serious one "The reason I was hired to be part of St. Anne's security was to protect the Crystal Eye from Phantom Venin. But I just couldn't sit by idly while Darkness Gang attacked, even though it wasn't technically my job. But I don't want anybody to get hurt because I didn't help when I could have. Even if this Team Rocket stuff doesn't really concern me, I already encountered them 3 times, and if I meet them again, I will stand up to them just as I have done previously. I don't plan on going after their boss like some great hero but if there's some information about them that could help me in another, eventual encounter, I want to know it."

"That's fine... But what do you mean by saying that you encounte..."

"I'm the one who brought the thing to Brock's attention after meeting a Team Rocket member in Viridian City and helped him realize that the Gym over there was used as a place to scout out new members. But I assumed it was a dead end, since their boss left that place long ago."

Lt. Surge turned to the side and held up a hand to his face while thinking about what to say. He glanced at the boy and after seeing the burning will of his eyes, decided to reveal what he knew.

"Brock did call us. In fact, he made it a group call using video chat. He explained the situation while omitting the stuff that involved you. You shouldn't fault him. He just wants to do good, like you, and he's probably worried about you getting involved. Anyway, out of the 7 leaders, there was one that didn't respond. It was Blaine. I noted that it was suspicious since he was one of the two people among us who knew the 8th leader personally."

"But the other person was there, yes?"

"Yes... But Koga may be even more suspicious than Blaine. I never looked into who the 8th guy was since it wasn't important to me, but after I learned that he's supposedly the boss of Team Rocket, I asked Koga to immediately tell us what he knew."

"And?"

"Weeell... We at least know his name. It's "Giovanni"."

"Giovanni." Red repeated the name as if it was supposed to remind him of something, but nothing came to his mind.

"Koga acted like he was better than us. Like as if he suspected Giovanni being the boss of Team Rocket for a long time and was just waiting till somebody else would realize. He said that he did his own investigation in the past and after getting to know Giovanni, they agreed to stay out of each other's way. He didn't look particularly happy about it. It seemed like he considered Giovanni the only person he ever met that was his match."

"So you didn't learn anything besides that?"

"Unfortunately not. We learned about the company he owned before but it seems like he dissolved it while taking all the money at the same time he abandoned his Gym. And all of his employees who could have some information about him, acted like they never saw him in person and never knew about his criminal career. There... There are two things that seem weird about all of this."

"What are they?"

"He sponsors orphanages. It seems he was pretty open about it but the money can't be traced back to him. The other thing is the fact pointed out by Koga before he left our group conversation. Although Team Rocket commit various crimes, it seems like they are less violent than other criminal organizations, especially toward humans. But I have no idea what either of these things mean. Brock tried to contact the Elite Four to try to get them to help but the bastards refused. They're even more annoying than Koga."

"That's all?"

"I'm afraid yes. Sorry. There wasn't anything helpful in what we learned."

"No, no problem." the boy said dismissively, while going into deep thought, already trying to decipher the clues he received.

. . .

A day later, Red was getting ready to leave Vermilion City. He called his parents, who seemed unaware of his adventure on St. Anne and his stay in the hospital, and told them about his progress, about getting the third badge and about Pikachu evolving. He gathered information and learned that the road leading directly to Saffron City was under construction and the closest place he could go to in order to get a badge was Celadon City. There were two ways to get there. A long one, through Cerulean City and mountains, and a shorter one to the east.

He arrived at the conclusion that Blue probably chose the latter so he decided that he would do the same. As he was leaving the city, he looked back and thought about all the stuff that he went through there, and about all the interesting people and Pokemon he met. Eevee, who was walking beside him, didn't understand that sudden nostalgia and decided to push his body against the boy's leg to make him move forward. Finally, they both started walking east, unaware that two pairs of eyes were keenly observing them from the shadows.

"Good. Now that he left the city, we can put our plan into action." said a male voice.

The other one answered him with a sound that carried with it a feeling of satisfaction and enjoyment.

* * *

The name of the chapter comes from the anime Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/A Certain Scientific Railgun. I've never actually watched it. I tried Index but it was kinda boring so I gave up. But the name fit because of Pikachu's final attack. I'm not going to pretend that I understand how railguns work but I came up with the attack when I decided that the gym walls are gonna be covered in metal. But the Wikipedia page for Railgun sounds similar to the thing Red came up with so I thinks it's okay. Red was actually supposed to come up with a name for it. Something like "Situational move: Bio Railgun" but I forgot about it since I wanted to get to the Team Rocket stuff.

I would also like to say that while I thought that name for the chapter would be cool and the final battle was the first one I came up with, I still think that Oddish deserves the most recognition. I had no problem with changing Pikachu's Thunder Shock to Thunderbolt but I didn't want to change Oddish's moveset and make myself a challenge since the 3 moves that he used previously were also support moves. I also considered giving him like Synthesis but went with Mega Drain since it woul probably be too hard to come up with a way to win against Electrode.

Apart from the battle, there's some information about Giovanni and Team Rocket. I kinda used Darkness Gang as an excuse for Red getting involved with them in the future. I also gave a taste of Koga's character. I can't wait to write about him. He's an eniterly different kind of guy than Lt. Surge yet both are still pretty badass. The last part will be explained the next time Red arrives in Vermilion City.

IMPORTANT: I may not be able to write and post anything for a couple months because of personal stuff. I'm not completely sure how it works out but don't worry if you don't see anything till january or february. I plan to keep on writing this as long as I have both of my hands, or until the story is done, which at the pace I'm going at will take several years.

Red. Team: Eevee, Charmander, Raichu, Oddish, Magikarp.

Badges: 3

Green. Team: Ivysaur, Nidorina, Jigglypuff, Hitmonlee.

Badges: 3

Blue. Team: Bellsprout(Bell), Wartortle(Tori), Zubat(?), ?.

Badges: 3

Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.

Angie. Team: ?, ?.

Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, ?.


End file.
